Terms of Service

Effective Date: September 6, 2026

Last Updated: September 6, 2026

Welcome to Petition Bangladesh (accessible via https://petitionbd.com, mobile applications, APIs, and associated online services). These Terms of Service ("Terms", "Agreement") constitute a legally binding agreement between you ("User", "You", or "Your") and Petition Bangladesh ("Platform", "We", "Us", or "Our").

By registering an account, accessing the platform, creating a petition, signing a campaign, or utilizing any services on petitionbd.com, you explicitly agree to be bound by these Terms, our Privacy Policy, and all applicable laws and regulations. If you do not agree to these Terms, you must immediately cease accessing and using the Platform.

1. Eligibility & User Registration

To access and utilize key features of Petition Bangladesh, including starting or signing petitions, you must satisfy the following eligibility criteria:

1. Age Limit: You must be at least 18 years of age (or the age of legal majority in your applicable jurisdiction) to create an account or submit petitions. Minors aged 13–17 may browse or sign petitions strictly with verifiable parental or legal guardian consent.
2. Account Accuracy: You agree to provide accurate, current, complete, and truthful information during account registration and verification. Creating accounts using fake identity details, impersonating other individuals or entities, or utilizing disposable/temporary credentials is strictly prohibited and constitutes grounds for immediate account termination.
3. Single Account Policy: Users are strictly limited to one active individual account to ensure the integrity of the civic voting and petition signing process.

2. Mobile Number & SMS OTP Verification Rules

To uphold the principle of "one real person, one verified signature" and eliminate automated bot manipulation, Petition Bangladesh mandates strict mobile phone verification.

1. Mandatory OTP Authentication: Account creation, campaign publishing, and petition signing require successful completion of One-Time Password (OTP) verification sent via SMS to your active mobile phone number.
2. Carrier & SMS Fees: Standard SMS text messaging rates and data fees charged by your mobile network operator apply to all OTP verification requests. Petition Bangladesh is not responsible for telecom delivery failures, carrier network delays, or SMS charges incurred by you.
3. Fair Use & Rate Limits: Automated, excessive, or fraudulent OTP generation requests are monitored and blocked by our security systems. Repeated misuse of the OTP system will result in temporary or permanent IP and device bans.
4. Verification Ownership: By entering a mobile number for OTP verification, you represent and warrant that you are the primary subscriber or authorized user of that mobile number.

3. Content Submission, Pre-Publication Approval Layer & Moderation

Petition Bangladesh operates an administrative filtering and moderation system designed to maintain platform quality, safety, and relevance.

A. The Pre-Publication Approval Layer

All newly drafted petitions, major revisions, updates, and user submissions are subject to a mandatory pre-publication administrative review prior to being made public on petitionbd.com.

1. Scope of Moderation: The approval layer exists solely to screen out spam, automated junk submissions, duplicate petitions, explicit adult material, hate speech, direct threats of violence, illegal acts, personal contact details (doxxing), and formatting errors.
2. No Endorsement or Fact-Checking: The approval or publication of a petition by our moderation team does NOT constitute an endorsement, validation, factual verification, or legal approval of the petition's claims, demands, or content. Approval indicates solely that the submission meets basic administrative community guidelines.
3. Discretionary Refusal: We reserve the absolute right, at our sole discretion, to reject, modify, request revisions for, or remove any petition or user submission that violates these Terms or is deemed harmful to the platform community.

B. Prohibited Content & Activity

You agree not to upload, post, host, or transmit any content on Petition Bangladesh that:

1. Contains false, misleading, fabricated, or deceptive information, news, or statements;
2. Is defamatory, libelous, slanderous, abusive, harassing, threatening, or invasive of another person's privacy;
3. Promotes discrimination, hate speech, violence, or hostility based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or national origin;
4. Infringes upon any third party’s intellectual property, patent, trademark, copyright, or trade secret rights;
5. Discloses private, confidential, or sensitive personal information of third parties (e.g., private phone numbers, home addresses, government ID details) without lawful explicit consent;
6. Promotes illegal activities, commercial solicitations, multi-level marketing, financial scams, or unauthorized commercial advertising;
7. Contains software viruses, malware, trojans, worms, or malicious code designed to disrupt platform operations.

CRITICAL CONTENT NOTICE: Submitting content that violates national security laws, incites criminal behavior, or constitutes severe legal defamation will result in immediate permanent account termination and, where mandated by law, reporting to competent law enforcement agencies.

4. Complete Platform Non-Responsibility & Comprehensive Liability Disclaimer

PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. IT LIMITS THE LEGAL LIABILITY OF PETITION BANGLADESH.

A. Intermediary Hosting Status

Petition Bangladesh acts strictly as an online intermediary platform and technical host for public expression. We do not author, write, edit, fact-check, sponsor, or exercise editorial control over the petitions created by our users.

B. Sole Responsibility of the Petition Submitter

Full legal, civil, criminal, moral, and regulatory responsibility for any petition published on petitionbd.com rests entirely and exclusively with the individual or entity submitting the campaign ("Petition Creator"). By submitting a petition, the Petition Creator explicitly warrants that all statements presented are truthful, accurate, lawful, and made in good faith.

C. Disclaimer of Warranties, Forecasting Effect & Outcomes

Petition Bangladesh provides the Platform and all services on an "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" basis without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, We specifically disclaim:

1. Any warranty that petition contents, claims, or supporting documents are factual, authentic, accurate, or complete;
2. Any guarantee, representation, or warranty regarding the future effect, political outcome, governmental response, legislative action, or real-world success of any petition;
3. Any guarantee that the Platform will operate uninterrupted, error-free, completely secure, or free from server downtime or technical glitches.

D. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted under applicable law, Petition Bangladesh, its founders, operators, directors, employees, technical partners, and affiliates shall NOT be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages—including but not limited to loss of reputation, loss of data, legal expenses, business disruption, or personal injury—arising out of or in connection with:

1. Your access to, use of, or inability to access or use the Platform;
2. Any petition content, user statements, comments, or materials posted by third parties on the site;
3. Any real-world fallout, public disputes, media reporting, or legal actions stemming from a published petition;
4. Unauthorized access, altering, or security breaches affecting your personal data or verification details.

5. User Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold completely harmless Petition Bangladesh, its officers, directors, operators, employees, licensors, and technical service providers from and against any and all claims, liabilities, losses, damages, costs, or expenses (including reasonable attorney fees and legal costs) arising from or related to:

1. Your breach or violation of any provision of these Terms of Service;
2. Any petition, comment, media file, or material created, submitted, or published by you on the Platform;
3. Your violation of any law, regulation, or third-party rights (including intellectual property or privacy rights);
4. Any dispute between you and another user, government entity, or target organization regarding a petition.

6. Intellectual Property & License Grants

1. Your Content Ownership: You retain ownership of the intellectual property rights in the text, images, and content you author and submit to Petition Bangladesh.
2. License to Platform: By submitting or publishing content on petitionbd.com, you grant Petition Bangladesh a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, sublicisable license to host, store, reproduce, display, distribute, translate, format, and feature your petition and public signature comments across our platform, APIs, social channels, and public media for campaign promotion and civic transparency.
3. Platform Intellectual Property: All software, branding, logos, graphics, website designs, database structures, and platform source code are the exclusive property of Petition Bangladesh and are protected under global copyright, trademark, and intellectual property laws.

7. Open Data API & Public Civic Display

To support public research, journalism, and civic transparency, Petition Bangladesh provides public petition views and an Open Data API.

1. Public Signatory Display: When you sign a petition, your public display name, district/city, and signature date may be visible publicly on the petition page. Your private mobile phone number, exact physical address, and raw national ID numbers are NEVER publicly exposed or accessible via API.
2. API Terms of Use: Researchers, journalists, and developers utilizing the Petition Bangladesh Open Data API must comply with rate limits, attribution requirements, and data protection standards. Re-identifying anonymous users or scraping personal contact details via API is strictly prohibited.

8. Platform Modifications, Termination & Account Suspension

1. Termination by User: You may request account deletion or stop using the Platform at any time by contacting [email protected].
2. Suspension/Termination by Platform: We reserve the right to suspend, disable, or permanently terminate your account, remove your petitions, or restrict your access to petitionbd.com immediately, without prior notice, if you violate these Terms, engage in signature fraud/bot manipulation, or commit illegal acts.
3. Service Evolution: We reserve the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue any feature, API, or part of the Platform at any time with or without notice.

9. Governing Law, Jurisdiction & Dispute Resolution

These Terms of Service and any dispute, claim, or legal proceedings arising out of or related to your use of Petition Bangladesh shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Bangladesh (including applicable national e-commerce, digital security, and civil laws), alongside international data protection norms (such as GDPR for covered residents), without giving effect to conflicts of law principles.

10. Changes to Terms of Service

We reserve the right to update or modify these Terms at any time. When updates occur, we will revise the "Last Updated" date at the top of this document. For material changes that impact user rights or legal liabilities, registered users will be notified via email or a prominent notification banner on petitionbd.com prior to changes taking effect. Continued use of the Platform after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the modified Terms.

11. Contact Information & Legal Notices

If you have any questions, legal notices, moderation concerns, or feedback regarding these Terms of Service, please reach out to our legal and support team:

1. Legal & Content Claims Email: infopetitionbd.com
2. Data Protection Officer Email: [email protected]
3. General Support Email: [email protected]
4. Website Contact Page: https://petitionbd.com/contact