Community Guidelines

1. What This Document Is

PSC Mastery has a community feed where users post, comment and interact, and multiplayer battles where users play against each other. These Guidelines are the rules for all of that. They form part of our Terms of Service and you must accept them before you can post.

We are an intermediary within the meaning of section 2(1)(w) of the Information Technology Act, 2000. We host what users post; we do not write it and we do not check it before it appears.

2. The Short Version

This is a study community for people preparing for Kerala PSC and similar examinations. Be useful, be civil, keep it on topic. Do not post anything you would not want attached to your own name — because it is.

3. What You Must Not Post

You must not host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share any information that:

1. (i) belongs to another person and to which you do not have any right;
2. (ii) is obscene, pornographic, paedophilic, invasive of another's privacy including bodily privacy, insulting or harassing on the basis of gender, racially or ethnically objectionable, relating to or encouraging money laundering or gambling, or an online game that causes user harm, or promoting enmity between different groups on the grounds of religion or caste with the intent to incite violence;
3. (iii) is harmful to a child;
4. (iv) infringes any patent, trademark, copyright or other proprietary rights;
5. (v) deceives or misleads the addressee about the origin of the message, or knowingly and intentionally communicates any information which is patently false or untrue or misleading in nature;
6. (vi) impersonates another person;
7. (vii) threatens the unity, integrity, defence, security or sovereignty of India, friendly relations with foreign States, or public order, or causes incitement to the commission of any cognisable offence, or prevents investigation of any offence, or is insulting to any other nation;
8. (viii) contains a software virus or any other computer code, file or program designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer resource;
9. (ix) is in the nature of an online game that is not a verified permissible online game;
10. (x) is in the nature of an advertisement, surrogate advertisement or promotion of an online game that is not a permissible online game, or of any online gaming intermediary offering such a game;
11. (xi) violates any law for the time being in force.

"User harm" and "harm" carry the meanings given to them in the Rules. This list reproduces rule 3(1)(b) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

4. Our Own House Rules

In addition to section 3, and because this is a study community, do not:

• abuse, bully, threaten or personally attack another user;
• post exam paper leaks, or anything claiming to be a leaked question paper;
• post other people's paid course material, PDFs or copyrighted books;
• advertise coaching centres, sell services, or spam referral links;
• post another person's phone number, address, roll number, marks or other personal details;
• use a profile photo or name that impersonates someone else, including a public figure or an official body;
• post betting, fantasy-sports or real-money gaming links;
• deliberately post wrong answers or misleading study information; or
• create multiple accounts to manipulate leaderboards, XP or battle results.

5. Reporting and Blocking

Every post and comment has a Report option, and every user can be blocked from the profile screen. Reporting is private — the person you report is not told who reported them.

5.1 Urgent reports. If the content shows a private area of any person, shows nudity or a sexual act, or impersonates someone — including by an artificially morphed image — use the "Intimate image or impersonation" reason in the report screen. That routes to a dedicated fast path and we act on it within 2 hours.

5.2 Everything else. We acknowledge every report within 24 hours and aim to resolve it within 7 days. Content that breaches section 3 is removed within 36 hours of us confirming the breach.

5.3 Court orders and government notices. Where we receive a court order, or a reasoned written notice from an authorised government officer identifying specific content and the legal basis for its removal, we remove that content within 3 hours.

5.4 Records. Where content is removed, we retain the content and the associated records for 180 days for investigation purposes, as the Rules require, or longer if a court or authorised agency directs.

6. What Happens If You Break These Rules

Depending on how serious it is, we may remove the content, restrict your ability to post, suspend your account, or close it — as set out in section 6 of the Terms of Service.

You should also know that you may be personally liable under Indian law for what you post, and that offences requiring mandatory reporting under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 or the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 will be reported to the appropriate authority.

7. Grievance Officer

If you have a complaint about content, about another user, about a moderation decision we have made, or about the Service generally, you can contact our Grievance Officer directly. We publish these details because rule 3(2)(a) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, rule 5(9) of the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules, 2011, and rule 4(4) of the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 all require us to.

How we handle it: we acknowledge your complaint within 24 hours, give you a reference number, and aim to resolve it within 7 days. For consumer complaints, the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 give us up to one month, but we work to the shorter timeline.

If you are not satisfied: you may appeal to a Grievance Appellate Committee constituted under rule 3A of those Rules, within thirty days of our decision. You may also complain to the Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission where you live or work — see section 11.3 of the Terms of Service.

8. What Other People Can See

Before you post, be aware that the following are visible to other users of PSC Mastery: your first name, your profile photo if you set one, your level, XP and streak on leaderboards, and any post or comment you make in the community feed. Your opponent in a battle sees your first name and profile photo.

Your email address, phone number and study history are never shown to other users.

9. Changes

We may update these Guidelines. We will post the new version here with a new effective date, and tell you in the app. At least once every three months we will remind you that these rules exist and what happens if they are broken.