Template notice for the site owner: these terms are a starting point drafted for a US civic platform. Have counsel review them — particularly the arbitration, governing law and liability sections — and insert the operating entity’s legal name, state of formation and notice address before launch.

Effective date: September 17, 2026.

1. Agreement

These Terms govern your use of jfkdebate.com and related services (the “Service”), operated by JFK Debate (“we”, “us”). By using the Service you agree to them and to our Privacy Policy and Community Guidelines, which are incorporated here. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

2. Eligibility and accounts

You must be at least 13 years old. You are responsible for the accuracy of your account information, for keeping your credentials secure, and for activity under your account. You may not create an account for someone else, operate multiple accounts to manipulate votes or debates, or use automated means to create accounts.

One person, one account. Organization accounts are for the organization named, and are held by a person authorized to bind it.

3. Your content

You keep ownership of everything you post. By posting, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable licence to host, store, reproduce, adapt for formatting, publish, display and distribute that content in connection with operating and promoting the Service, and to permit others to quote it with attribution. This licence exists so we can run a public platform; it ends for future uses when you delete the content, except where it has already been incorporated into a public record such as a petition delivered to a government body, or where others have relied on it in the archive of a closed debate.

You represent that you have the rights to what you post, that it does not infringe anyone’s rights, and that factual claims are supported by the sources you cite.

4. Evidence and honesty rules

Because the value of this Service depends on it, these rules are contractual, not merely aspirational:

  • Every argument must cite at least one source that supports the claim it makes.
  • You may not misrepresent what a source says, alter quotations, or cite a source you have not read.
  • You may not post as, or imply that you are, a public official, agency or organization you do not represent.
  • You must disclose if you are being paid to advocate a position, or if you have a direct financial interest in the outcome being debated.
  • You may not use the Service to campaign for or against a candidate for office, or to coordinate with a campaign committee.

5. Prohibited conduct

You may not: harass, threaten or defame others; post personal information about another person without consent (doxxing); post unlawful, obscene or child-endangering material; impersonate anyone; manipulate votes, signatures or reputation through duplicate accounts, bots or coordinated inauthentic activity; scrape the Service except as permitted by our robots.txt; probe or breach security; upload malware; or use the Service in a way that interferes with others’ use of it.

Petitions must be genuine. Signing with a false name or an address you do not have, or fabricating signatures, may also violate state election law.

6. Moderation, suspension and appeals

We may edit for formatting, label, hide or remove content, and we may suspend or terminate accounts, when the Terms or the Community Guidelines are broken. Removals come with a reason and a route to appeal to a moderator not involved in the original decision. Repeated or severe violations lead to permanent termination.

We are not obliged to host any particular content, and nothing here creates an editorial obligation to publish.

7. Our content

Our editorial articles, directory compilations, design, code and branding are ours or our licensors’, and are protected by copyright and trademark. You may quote our articles with attribution and a link. Bulk republication, resale or use of our data to train commercial machine-learning models requires written permission. Factual government data included in the directory is not owned by anyone — but our compilation and presentation of it is.

Photographs are licensed from their authors through Unsplash and may not be redistributed by you as if they were ours; see credits.

8. No professional advice; not a government service

The Service provides general information about civic processes. It is not legal, financial or professional advice, and using it does not create any professional relationship. We are not a government agency, we are not affiliated with one, and nothing here is an official notice. Always confirm meeting times, deadlines and legal requirements with the relevant jurisdiction before acting. See the disclaimer.

9. Third-party links and content

The Service links to government, news and other third-party sites we do not control, and hosts content written by users. We do not endorse and are not responsible for third-party or user content. Debates and arguments reflect their authors, not us.

10. Disclaimers

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTY THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE OR ERROR-FREE, OR THAT DIRECTORY INFORMATION IS CURRENT OR ACCURATE.

11. Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, DATA OR GOODWILL, ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM RELATING TO THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF ONE HUNDRED US DOLLARS (US$100) OR THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE TWELVE MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM AROSE. Some jurisdictions do not allow these limits, in which case they apply to the fullest extent permitted.

12. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from claims, damages and reasonable legal fees arising from your content, your use of the Service, or your violation of these Terms or of any law or third-party right.

13. Dispute resolution

We would rather fix a problem than litigate it: write to [email protected] first, and we will try in good faith to resolve the dispute within 60 days. If that fails, disputes will be resolved as set out here, under the laws of the state in which the operating entity is formed, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, and in the state or federal courts located there, unless a binding arbitration provision is added and separately disclosed with an opt-out. Nothing prevents either party from seeking relief in small claims court.

14. Changes and termination

We may update these Terms; material changes will be posted here with a new effective date and notified to account holders at least 14 days in advance. Continued use after that is acceptance. You may close your account at any time. We may suspend or discontinue the Service or any feature, and will give notice where practical.

15. General

These Terms are the entire agreement between us about the Service. If any provision is unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms; we may assign them to a successor. Sections that by their nature survive termination (content licence for published material, disclaimers, liability limits, indemnity, dispute resolution) do so.

16. Contact

Questions about these Terms: [email protected]. A postal address for formal notices will be published here and on the contact page.