YKA is a people’s platform. That means thousands use it daily to share their thoughts and opinions. Which makes it doubly necessary that this should be a safe space for all.

Disagreement that leads to debate is therefore encouraged but shutting down someone because you disagree with them is not. That’s what being a community is about.

And therefore:

What stays on YKA

You are welcome to submit news reports, articles, op-eds, photo stories, videos, infographics, poems and personal stories on issues of importance. However, we do not publish fiction. As of now, we only publish stories in English and Hindi. If you wish to share a video in another language, then it will need to have subtitles. We currently only cover the following broad categories: society and its issues, culture, environment, politics, gender, sex and sexuality, human rights, popular culture, education, entrepreneurship and stories of social change. We encourage you to post about intersectional topics, for e.g. topics related to the intersectionality of sports and social change.

No personal attacks:

Anything that violates or infringes upon someone else’ rights and attacks them personally for their beliefs and choices will not be accepted. You can attack the argument but not the individual.

Nothing discriminatory in nature:

We have all kinds of people belonging to different faiths, nationalities and all across the gender and sexuality spectrum contributing to our community. And we love ‘em and are proud of all of them. Which also means, no content that is in any way discriminatory in nature towards any community shall be tolerated on the platform.

Allegations and rants:

Somethings and some people can really piss one off. And we know that feeling where you just want to vent! But content of this kind seldom leads to meaningful debates. It’s great for personal sharing but here, let’s just stick to substantiated stuff that people can engage with.

No threats of violence:

C’mon, you know this is wrong. We know context means a lot and so we will keep that in mind, but at no point will anything that suggests violence be put on the platform.

No ads or promotional stuff

We do not accept press releases, advertorials, or any content that is promotional of a commercial good/service/organisation or individual. If you’d like to run a campaign on something that you or your organisation is doing, please feel free to write to campaigns@youthkiawaaz.com.

No plagiarism or copyright infringement:

Plagiarism or copying content from others is nothing less than stealing. Any post found to have been plagiarised will be taken down.

What broadly counts as plagiarism:

1. Submitting someone else’s work, or parts of it as your own.
2. Copying someone else’s ideas or words without providing a source or giving due credit.
3. Not using quotation marks while using a direct quote taken from another source.

No incorrect facts or unreliable sources

If you are using facts/stats/data/quotes from external sources, make you sure add a link to the source either at the end of the post, or hyperlink the relevant words. In case your source is not online, mention full name in footnotes.

No pornography

It is a crime to create, display, distribute, import, or publish pornography or obscene materials. You have been warned.

No spam

Do not spam, or use tags or links or misleading information about what you have posted. Don't embed malicious code in your posts or use deceptive ways to generate revenues or traffic. Don’t write posts aimed at affiliate marketing.

Privacy Violations

Don’t post content that violates others’ privacy, including personally identifying or confidential information like credit card numbers, social security numbers, or non-public contact information.

Deceptive Impersonation

Don’t impersonate someone else to deceive people. Parody is fine, but make that clear.

If found in contravention of the above:

Any content that violates the above guidelines will be immediately taken down when it comes to our notice. In some case, we will also take down specific lines, words of phrases in your posts that violate these guidelines.

Fairness and the freedom of speech and expression are core to YKA’s existence. And we do believe that the best way to counter opposing ideas is to battle ‘em out with more ideas. Censorship is not the solution.

However, while trying our best to implement the above, we do reserve the right to remove any comment or post without prior notice, for reasons, especially to protect the rights of other community members and our services. These are guidelines only and do not place any obligation on us to act a certain way.

If you find a post that violates these guidelines and has not been taken down, please "Report" the post immediately to us, using the report option or email us at info@youthkiawaaz.com.