Legal

Reporting defamatory content

Reporting content you believe is defamatory

Effective: 2026-07-29 Last updated: 2026-07-29 Version: 1.0

This page explains how to tell us about content on Score you believe is defamatory of you, and exactly what we will do about it.

It is the same procedure set out in Section 16 of our Terms of Use. It is published separately here so you can find it and use it without reading a contract first. If the two ever differ, the Terms of Use govern.

Who this is for

Anyone who believes something written about them through Score is defamatory. You do not need to be a Score customer, and you do not need to have a Score account, to use this procedure.

Score carries peer assessments of people's professional skills. Assessors are anonymous to everyone, including the person being assessed. That anonymity is a promise we keep, so this procedure is how we hold ourselves accountable for what is published without exposing the individual who wrote it.

What to send us

Email legal@score-corp.com with the following. Please include all five, because a notice missing any of them may not start the clock below.

Your name, and a way for us to contact you.
The specific statement or content you believe is defamatory.
Where and when it appeared: the page or link, and the date and time if you have them.
What you understand the statement to mean. In other words, what it says about you.
What is factually inaccurate about it, or which opinions in it are not supported by fact, and why. Be specific. "It is wrong about my role on the project, because I was not on that project until March" tells us far more than "it is untrue".
Confirmation that you do not have enough information about the assessor to bring a claim against them directly. This matters because the procedure exists precisely for the situation where you cannot identify who wrote the content.
Whether you consent to us giving the assessor your name and email address, so they can respond to you directly if they choose to. You can say no. Saying no does not stop us acting on your notice, but it does change what we are able to do with the content, which we explain below.
A short statement confirming the information you have given us is accurate. An email signature is enough; we do not need a wet signature.

Items 4 to 7 are not us being awkward: they are required by section 5(6) of the Defamation Act 2013 and regulation 2 of the Defamation (Operators of Websites) Regulations 2013. If any are missing, your notice may not count as a valid notice of complaint and the timetable below may not start.

You can also write to us by post at the address in our Terms of Use.

What we will do, and when

Within 48 hours of receiving a complete notice (weekends and bank holidays do not count towards this 48 hours, under the Regulations), we will:

Hide the content from view while we look at it. This happens first, before we form any view on whether the complaint is right.
Tell the assessor that a notice has been received and invite them to respond. We will not tell you who they are, and we will not tell them anything about you beyond what is necessary for them to respond.

The assessor then has 5 days to respond, counted as calendar days starting the day after we contact them. That is the statutory clock the Section 5 defence runs on, so we do not extend it, even though we sometimes act faster in practice.

Within a further 48 hours of the response window closing, or of the assessor's response if they reply sooner, we act as set out below and tell you the outcome.

How we decide

If the assessor does not respond in time, we remove the content.
If the assessor objects to removal and agrees to their details being passed to you, we give you those details and the content stays up. From that point the dispute is between you and them, and you can bring a claim directly.
If the assessor objects to removal and does not agree to their details being passed to you, the content stays up and we tell you that they objected and did not consent. We know that is an unsatisfying answer to receive. It is the outcome the Regulations set, and it is the point at which the route below becomes the one that is open to you.

Separately from all of the above, we can always remove content that breaks our Acceptable Use Policy or our Terms of Use. That is a different decision on a different basis, it is ours to make, and it is not part of the statutory procedure.

We may depart from this procedure where the circumstances reasonably require it, for example where content is clearly unlawful or where we are ordered by a court.

What this procedure is not

It is not a route to the assessor's identity. We will not disclose who wrote an assessment through this process unless they consent to it. If you need their identity in order to bring a claim, the route is a court application for disclosure, known in England and Wales as Norwich Pharmacal relief. We are naming it so you know the mechanism exists; we are not able to shortcut it for you.
It is not a way to remove a score you disagree with. This procedure is for content you say is factually inaccurate and damaging to your reputation. A low rating you think is unfair is not the same thing. If you want to raise that, contact us at legal@score-corp.com anyway and we will point you to the right route.
It does not affect your other rights. Using this procedure does not stop you doing anything else the law allows, and it does not waive anything on our side either.

Terms of Use, Section 16, which this procedure implements
Acceptable Use Policy, which prohibits attempts to unmask assessors
Privacy Policy, including how to exercise your data-protection rights

Which law applies

Section 5 of the Defamation Act 2013 is a law of England and Wales. We apply this procedure as a matter of policy wherever you are. If your claim is governed by the law of England and Wales, it is also designed so that Score Network, Inc. can rely on the Section 5 defence.

If you are in the United States or elsewhere, there is no equivalent statutory notice-and-takedown scheme for defamation. We will still follow this procedure, but there we are doing so voluntarily under our Terms of Use rather than under a statute. Nothing on this page is an admission by us about our status as publisher of any content, in any place where that question is disputed.