Takedown and Correction Policy

1. About this policy

Uganda Culture documents living cultures and the people who carry them. We work hard to be accurate and to publish only with consent, but we will sometimes get things wrong. This policy explains how you can ask us to correct or remove something, and how we decide. Uganda Culture is run by Uganda Culture, Uganda.

2. What can be corrected or removed

You can ask us to correct or remove any material on the site, including records, photos, audio, video, oral histories, events, journal articles, map entries and tourism listings. Common reasons include:

• a fact, name, spelling or translation is wrong;
• a living person is named or shown without their consent;
• a child is shown or named without a parent's or guardian's consent;
• the material is restricted or sacred and should not be public;
• the material is sensitive and was published without community sign-off;
• the material infringes copyright;
• a narrator or contributor has withdrawn consent;
• the material is unfair to a community, or presents one account as the only one where accounts differ.

3. Who can ask

Anyone can suggest a correction or ask for a removal. You do not need an account. We give particular weight to requests from the person named or shown, their family, their community or cultural institution, and the owner of the rights in the material.

You can also ask on behalf of someone else, for example an elder who does not use the internet or a child in your care. Please tell us who you are acting for and how you know them. We may contact them, or people who know them, to confirm the request.

4. How to ask

You can reach us in three ways:

• to fix an error, use suggest a correction, which is available on every page;
• to have material taken down, use request removal;
• if you cannot use the forms, email us at [email protected].

5. What to include

To help us act quickly, please include:

• a link to the page, and which part of it you mean;
• what is wrong, or why it should be removed;
• your relationship to the material, for example the person named, a family member, a community representative or the rights holder;
• any source or evidence that supports your request;
• your name and an email address so we can reply.

We keep requests confidential and use your details only to handle the request.

6. Our timelines

We acknowledge every removal request within 48 hours. We decide within 7 days. If we need more information from you, we will ask, and we will tell you if a decision will take longer because, for example, we need to consult a community. Corrections are usually handled as part of our normal editing and we aim to deal with them promptly.

7. Hiding while we review

When a removal request comes from the person named, their family, their community or the rights holder, we hide the page while we review it. Hidden material is not shown on the site, in our API or in search. Other requests are reviewed with the material still visible, unless it is clear that harm could result, in which case we hide it straight away.

8. Possible outcomes

After review, we will do one of the following and tell you which:

• Corrected. We fix the error and update the date the record was last checked. Where the meaning changes, we note the correction on the record.
• Edited. We remove or change part of the material, such as a name, a photo or a passage.
• Hidden. We keep the record privately but take it off the site, the API and search, for example while consent is sought.
• Removed. We take the material down permanently.
• Kept, with reasons. If we decide the material should stay as it is, we explain why.

9. Copyright claims

If you own the rights in material on the site and did not agree to its use, please tell us through request removal. Describe the work, show how you own it and link to where it appears. Copyright in Uganda is governed by the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act, 2006. We hide the material while we review your claim and may ask the contributor for their account. Our Copyright and Licensing page explains how our licences work.

10. Withdrawn consent

A narrator, contributor or person shown can withdraw consent at any time. When consent is withdrawn, we hide the record from the site, our API and search. Copies that others made while the material was available under an open licence cannot be recalled, as explained in our Contributor Agreement.

11. Appeals

If you disagree with our decision, you can appeal by replying to our decision or emailing [email protected]. Tell us why you think the decision is wrong and include anything new. A different member of our team from the one who made the first decision will review the appeal, and we will give you a final answer with reasons.

12. Records we keep

We keep a record of each request: your name, email, what you wrote, the date, our decision and the reasons. We use these records to handle the request, to show how we acted and to improve our work. Our Privacy Policy explains how long we keep them and how you can ask for a copy through your data requests.

13. What we do not remove

We do not remove accurate, properly sourced material only because someone dislikes it or disagrees with it. Where accounts honestly differ, we set out each account fairly rather than removing one. We will, however, always consider adding a different account, a fuller source or a note of disagreement, so please tell us what you know.

14. Contact

If you have a question about this policy, please contact us or email us at [email protected].