The Telegraph community guidelines

Welcome to the Telegraph. Comments sections are open on most of our articles for subscribers, and we hope you will enjoy and take part in great conversations around our stories.

  1. In brief: You need to be a subscriber to leave a comment on a story.
  2. We welcome debate on the topic of the article but abuse, inappropriate language, or spam will be automatically removed. Please abide by our guidelines.
  3. If you see a comment you think breaches our guidelines please flag it to our moderators and help keep discussions polite.
  4. A full list of FAQ’s can be found here

How to comment

You need to be subscribed to the Telegraph in order to post comments. Learn more about our Privacy and Cookie Policy here.

Most articles will allow comments but not all. Comments can contain text and links and you can edit your text within 5 minutes of posting. You can reply to another comment and yours will appear underneath.

If you read a comment you like you can click “Like” which appears directly under the comment text. When you click “Like” it will then appear as “unlike” which is giving you the option to “unlike” the comment. 

Comments are published indefinitely after an article is published. Sometimes comment threads will be closed if the community does not keep the discussion polite and on topic.

Pinned comments

Every day, our editors choose one or more thought-provoking posts to be pinned or featured at the top of the comments section on a number of our articles. These often highlight readers’ personal experiences or insights and are intended to encourage quality debate.

Moderation

Comments will automatically be filtered for offensive language. Please don’t swear or the comment will not be posted.

If you see a comment you think is inappropriate or breaches our commenting guidelines (see below) then use the Flag button to the right of the comment. This alerts our moderation team.

Our moderators will review flagged comments and remove them if they decide they breach our guidelines. We do not edit comments, only remove them. This is a subjective process but the moderator’s decision is final.

Community members who breach the guidelines may be banned from posting comments for a limited period or permanently. If you have been placed under such a ban you will be notified when you try to post and/or by email.

Full commenting guidelines

We want our readers to be able to engage in debate, share stories and discuss our articles in the comments section. We encourage quality conversation that is topical, intelligent, witty and even humorous. Here are 5 guidelines we ask all of our commenters to adhere to maintain a quality comment section for everyone:

  1. Personal abuse and bullying by name-calling, insults or threats to other users and authors will be removed.  We do not tolerate religious abuse, racism, sexism, homophobia, minority abuse or any hate-speech. Profanity (bad language) may automatically be filtered and removed from the comments section.
  2. Potentially defamatory comments about individuals, companies or organisations are not permitted nor any material that infringes the privacy or data rights of others.  Do not post text or images that breach copyright.
  3. Any comments containing conspiracy theories and/or deliberately misleading information which could be injurious to third parties may result in a suspension or permanent restriction from commenting.
  4. Comments will be removed if they are not deemed as on topic to the article they are posted under. Any content deliberately promoting a business/product will be removed. Repeatedly posted spam-like content may also be removed.
  5. Impersonation of other users or public figures will result in the removal of comments. Offensive usernames will also be removed/cancelled.

At the Telegraph, we welcome reader engagement with our stories and encourage you to debate and discuss the issues raised. Moderation is primarily reactive so please let us know if you consider a comment falls outside the guidelines.

The comments section is your place to build a Community of readers, one where you have the ability to set the agenda and debate with your fellow readers. We ask you to be the creators of an environment that is respectful, intelligent and inviting for others.

All content is subject to our Terms of Use and we reserve the right to remove any content, comments and/or commenting privileges at any time, without reason and without prior notice or warning. 

Please note that any persistent breach of house rules or Terms of Use may result in a permanent restriction from commenting.

If you are experiencing a technical issue with the commenting system, please email productfeedback@telegraph.co.uk. If you have any questions about our community guidelines, you can email moderation@telegraph.co.uk.

Source: telegraph.co.uk

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