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Terms of Service

The Services

These Terms of Service (the "TOS" or "Terms") apply to Suwali, a software-as-a-service application (the "Services") developed by Meedan Inc. ("Meedan"), a San Francisco-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit international media and open source technology organization. The use of "We," "Us," or "Our" in the Terms below shall refer to Meedan.

Our goal in developing the Services is to make the world a better, more cross-lingual, cross-cultural, and informed place. We hope these Terms, as a legal contract between us and you, reflect our commitment to these values. Through these Terms, we want to inform you of your legal obligations as a user and our legal obligations to you as the company that has designed and deployed this software.

The Services do not include any third-party software, application, widget, or integration used in concert with Suwali ("Third-Party Services"). These Terms only apply to our Services.

Please be aware that Third-Party Services will have their own terms of use. You agree to be bound by these additional third-party terms, and not to engage in any activities that are or may be in contravention of any of those terms.

Your Agreement to the Terms

When you sign up for the Services, you are required to agree to these Terms. You acknowledge that this TOS is a contract between you and Meedan, and it governs your use of the Services. You also agree to abide by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated by reference.

If you are accessing our Services in the scope of your employment or you are entering into this TOS on behalf of a legal entity, then you represent and warrant that you have the authority to enter into these Terms on behalf of your employer or that entity and to bind any affiliates, users, clients, or other associated parties to these TOS. If you do not have this authority, you may not use our Services. If you do represent a corporation, government, organization, or any other legal entity, the "you" or "your" refer to that entity and all affiliates, members, and administrators, as applicable. Where these Terms impose obligations on organizations or refer to organizational responsibilities, those obligations are binding on the legal entity you represent.

Changes to the Services and Terms

We reserve the right to modify the Services at any time provided there is no material loss of functionality. Although we may attempt to notify you when major changes are made to these Terms, it is your responsibility to review the current version of these Terms to keep abreast of any changes. Any modifications made to these Terms go into effect immediately.

Using Our Services

When you sign up to use Suwali, you will transmit your organization's data to Suwali's system. This enables Suwali's chatbot to respond to audience questions with answers drawn directly from articles, posts, or other data that you provide.

By transmitting your organization's data to Suwali, you represent and warrant that you either own or have the authority to release that data for use within our system. Meedan is not responsible for data that we have received from individuals who did not have the power to authorize its transmission.

When transmitting your data to Suwali, you acknowledge that our system will process your data and transmit segments of that data to a Large Language Model ("LLM") that will use that data to formulate natural language responses to audience questions. You expressly understand and agree that we shall not be liable for any damages or losses resulting from outputs generated by a LLM.

You agree that you will comply with all applicable laws and regulations in your use of the Services and will not use the Services for any unlawful purpose. You hereby also agree that you will not transmit, promote or otherwise make available any:

  • content that infringes any copyright, trademark, right of publicity, patent or other proprietary rights of any person or entity;
  • content that is obscene or pornographic;
  • content that discloses any sensitive information about another person, including that person's e-mail address, postal address, phone number, credit card information, or any similar information;
  • child sexual abuse material (CSAM) or any content depicting, promoting, or facilitating the sexual exploitation of minors;
  • terrorist content, including material that incites, solicits, or provides instruction for terrorist acts;
  • defamatory, libelous, or slanderous content that harms the reputation of individuals or organizations;
  • hate speech or content that incites violence, discrimination, or hostility based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or other protected characteristics;
  • content that violates privacy rights, including unauthorized disclosure of personal data or confidential information;
  • non-consensual intimate images or deepfake content created without the subject's consent; or
  • content that violates applicable laws or regulations in the United States, United Kingdom, European Union or the jurisdiction where the content is accessed.

You agree not to decompile, reverse engineer, or disassemble any Meedan software, product or processes as accessible through the Services. You agree not to use any information provided by Suwali users (including content) to market or develop any products or services that are competitive with Suwali or any other Meedan products, or allow third parties to do so. This obligation survives any expiration or termination of these Terms.

While using our Services, you may encounter links to or interact with Third-Party Services or websites. Please be aware that our Terms, Privacy Policy, and other legal terms do not apply to Third-Party Services or websites. We cannot control the content and use of Third-Party Services or websites, and do not endorse them or their content. By using our Services, you expressly relieve Meedan from any and all liability arising out of the use of a Third-Party Service or website.

Account

The Services may require you to create an account with us. You affirm that all information provided by you during the registration process is accurate. You are solely responsible for the actions taken by your account. It is therefore important that you take appropriate measures to secure your account and password. Specifically, do not share your password with anyone. Do not share your account with anyone. If you are using an account administered by an organization, do not allow anyone other than authorized administrators of your account to use your account.

If your device has been seized or you suspect there has been unauthorized use of your account, please contact us immediately at support@suwali.io. We are not liable for any damages arising out of the unauthorized use or loss of control of your account.

Any violation of these Terms can result in termination of your account. We reserve the right to terminate or restrict your account for any reason whatsoever. See "Termination" for a list of circumstances warranting termination and related restrictions.

We are not liable for damages arising out of account termination, access restriction, or content deletion.

User Age

By using our Services, you affirm that you are over the age of 18.

If you are under 18 and using our Services, please discontinue use immediately and have your parent or legal guardian notify us so that we can remove your data from our Services.

Software

You acknowledge that all the intellectual property rights, including copyrights, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets, in the Services and its content are owned by Meedan or Meedan's suppliers. Neither these Terms (nor your access to the Services) transfers to you or any third party any rights, title or interest in or to such intellectual property rights, except for the limited access rights expressly set forth herein. Meedan and its suppliers reserve all rights not granted in these Terms. There are no implied licenses granted under these Terms.

Meedan gives you a personal, worldwide, royalty-free, non-assignable, non-transferable and non-exclusive license to use the software provided to you by Meedan as part of the Services. These Terms only apply to the version of Suwali provided by Meedan, not the Suwali source code.

We make the source code for Suwali available to the public under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License. This means you may use, copy, modify, and distribute Suwali's code to others, as long as you follow the guidelines articulated in the GNU Affero General Public License.

Content Rights

If applicable, you retain ownership of any content that you generate on our Services. By using Suwali, you grant us a limited, worldwide, non-revocable, royalty-free license or sublicense to reproduce, distribute, display and otherwise use this content and any of your organization's data that is processed through the Services to configure and provide the Services to you, to prevent or address service or technical problems, in accordance with these Terms, and otherwise in accordance with your requests or instructions.

You also grant us the right to use anonymized versions of your content for research, analytics, and software development purposes. You may revoke this permission by sending an email to privacy@meedan.org. We shall then exclude all subsequent content you post or create on our Services from our research uses: please be aware that this opt-out does not apply retroactively. To learn more about how we store and use data, you can view our Privacy Policy.

We will never sell organizational data or personal information to third parties. We will never share organizational data or personal information with third parties, with the exception of the following scenarios:

  • When you give us permission to share it.
  • When we use third-party service providers to deliver our services, such as those we use for hosting, content delivery, security, analytics, cloud storage, and data processing.
  • When we have a legal obligation to disclose information.
  • When we believe it is necessary to prevent harm.

If you provide Meedan with any feedback or suggestions regarding the Services ("Feedback"), you hereby assign to Meedan all rights in such Feedback and agree that Meedan shall have the right to use and fully exploit such Feedback and related information in any manner it deems appropriate. Meedan will treat any Feedback you provide to Meedan as non-confidential and non-proprietary. You agree that you will not submit to Meedan any information or ideas that you consider to be confidential or proprietary.

Warranty Disclaimer

YOU AGREE THAT YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES SHALL BE AT YOUR SOLE RISK. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, MEEDAN, ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN CONNECTION WITH THE SERVICES AND YOUR USE OF THEM.

MEEDAN MAKES NO WARRANTIES OR REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF ANY CONTENT DELIVERED BY OUR SERVICES OR THE CONTENT OF ANY SITES LINKED TO THROUGH OUR SERVICES. WE ASSUME NO LIABILITY OR RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY:

  • ERRORS, MISTAKES, OMISSIONS OR INACCURACIES OF CONTENT WHETHER PROVIDED BY MEEDAN OR OUR USERS;
  • PERSONAL INJURY OR PROPERTY DAMAGE, OF ANY NATURE WHATSOEVER, RESULTING FROM YOUR ACCESS TO AND USE OF OUR SERVICES;
  • ANY UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR USE OF OUR SECURE SERVERS AND/OR ANY AND ALL PERSONAL INFORMATION AND/OR FINANCIAL INFORMATION STORED THEREIN;
  • ANY INTERRUPTION OR CESSATION OF TRANSMISSION TO OR FROM OUR SERVICES;
  • ANY MALWARE, VIRUSES, OR LIKE COMPUTER INSTRUCTIONS THAT MAY BE TRANSMITTED TO OR THROUGH OUR SERVICES BY ANY THIRD PARTY; AND/OR
  • LOSS OR DAMAGE OF ANY KIND INCURRED AS A RESULT OF THE USE OF ANY CONTENT EMAILED, POSTED, OR OTHERWISE MADE AVAILABLE VIA THE SERVICES.

MEEDAN DOES NOT WARRANT, ENDORSE, GUARANTEE, OR ASSUME RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY PRODUCT OR SERVICE APPEARING OR LINKED TO WITHIN THE SERVICES.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

IN NO EVENT SHALL MEEDAN, ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, OR AGENTS, BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY OTHER PERSON FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES BASED ON ANY LEGAL THEORY, INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE, RESULTING FROM ANY ERRORS, MISTAKES, OR INACCURACIES OF CONTENT, INCLUDING INACCURATE TRANSLATIONS; PERSONAL INJURY OR PROPERTY DAMAGE, OF ANY NATURE WHATSOEVER, RESULTING FROM YOUR ACCESS TO AND USE OF OUR SERVICES; UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR USE OF OUR SECURE SERVERS AND/OR ANY AND ALL PERSONAL INFORMATION AND/OR FINANCIAL INFORMATION STORED THEREIN; INTERRUPTION OR CESSATION OF TRANSMISSION TO OR FROM OUR SERVICES; MALWARE, VIRUSES, TROJAN HORSES, OR OTHER COMPUTER INSTRUCTIONS DESIGNED TO HARM OR TAKE ADVANTAGE, THAT MAY BE TRANSMITTED TO OR THROUGH OUR SERVICES BY ANY THIRD PARTY; AND/OR ERRORS OR OMISSIONS IN ANY CONTENT OR FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE OF ANY KIND INCURRED AS A RESULT OF YOUR USE OF ANY CONTENT POSTED, TRANSMITTED, OR OTHERWISE MADE AVAILABLE VIA THE SERVICES BASED ON ANY LEGAL THEORY, AND WHETHER OR NOT THE COMPANY IS ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. YOU SPECIFICALLY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT MEEDAN SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR CONTENT OR THE DEFAMATORY, OFFENSIVE, OR ILLEGAL CONDUCT OF ANY THIRD PARTY AND THAT THE RISK OF HARM OR DAMAGE FROM THE FOREGOING RESTS ENTIRELY WITH YOU.

CERTAIN JURISDICTIONS DO NOT PERMIT THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES OR THE LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES. THIS MEANS THAT SOME OF THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. IN THESE JURISDICTIONS, THE FOREGOING EXCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS WILL BE ENFORCED TO THE GREATEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.

Indemnification

To the extent authorized by law, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless Meedan, its employees, officers, directors, affiliates, and agents from and against any and all claims, losses, expenses, damages, and costs, including reasonable attorneys' fees, resulting directly or indirectly from or arising out of (a) your violation of these Terms, (b) your use of any of the Services, and/or the content you make available on any of the Services.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act and Copyright Policy

We respect copyright, and we prohibit users of the Services from submitting, uploading, posting, or otherwise transmitting any content on the Services that violates another person's proprietary rights.

To report allegedly infringing content hosted on a website owned or controlled by us, send a notice of infringing materials as set out in Meedan's Copyright Policy.

Repeat Infringers

In accordance with Section 512(i)(1)(a) of the DMCA, we will, in appropriate circumstances, disable and/or terminate the accounts of users who are repeat infringers.

Termination

Any violation of these Terms can result in termination of your account. Circumstances warranting termination include but are not limited to any use of the Services to:

  • Distribute or collect content that is defamatory, libelous, obscene, pornographic, invasive of another's privacy, or promotes violence or illegal activity, or contains hate speech (i.e., speech that attacks or demeans a group based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, and/or sexual orientation/gender identity);
  • Distribute or collect content that constitutes or condones child abuse or exploitation;
  • Disclose any sensitive information about another person, including that person's sexual identity, health information, e-mail address, postal address, phone number, credit card information, or any similarly sensitive information that could be used to harm them;
  • Infringe any copyright, trademark, right of publicity, or other proprietary rights of any person or entity;
  • Decompile, reverse engineer, or disassemble any Meedan software, product or processes as accessible through the Services; or
  • Market or develop any products or services that are competitive with Suwali or any other Meedan products.

In the event of termination, we will provide you notice, and make a good faith effort to provide a reason for account termination.

If you wish to terminate this agreement, please contact Meedan at support@suwali.io. You may immediately stop accessing or using the Services at any time. Your right to access and use the Services (including use of your account) terminates automatically upon your breach of any of these Terms.

The disclaimer of warranties, the limitation of liability, and the jurisdiction and applicable law provisions will survive any termination. The license grants applicable to your content are not impacted by the termination of these Terms and shall continue in effect subject to the terms of the applicable license. Any obligations resulting from your use of the API will survive termination. Your indemnification obligations will survive for one year after termination.

Language of the Terms

These Terms were originally written in English (US). We may translate these Terms into other languages for informational purposes. In the event of a conflict between a translated version of these Terms and the English version, the English version will control.

Governing Law

This agreement constitutes the entire agreement between us and you concerning the subject matter hereof, and may only be modified by a written amendment signed by an authorized executive of Meedan, or by the posting by Meedan of a revised version.

Except to the extent applicable law, if any, provides otherwise, this agreement and any access to or use of the website will be governed by the laws of the state of California, U.S.A., excluding its conflict of law provisions.

The proper venue for any disputes not resolved by arbitration arising out of or relating to any of the same will be the state and federal courts located in San Francisco County, California.

You and Meedan agree that any cause of action arising out of or related to the services must commence within one year after the cause of action accrues, otherwise, such cause of action is permanently barred.

Arbitration

Except for claims for injunctive or equitable relief or claims regarding intellectual property rights any dispute arising out of this agreement or relating to the use of our services shall be finally settled in accordance with the comprehensive arbitration rules of the Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Service, Inc. (JAMS) by three arbitrators appointed in accordance with such rules.

The arbitration shall take place in San Francisco, California, in the English language and the arbitral decision may be enforced in any court. The prevailing party in any action or proceeding to enforce this agreement shall be entitled to costs and attorneys' fees.

Miscellaneous

If any part of this agreement is held invalid or unenforceable, that part will be construed to reflect the parties' original intent, and the remaining portions will remain in full force and effect. Any examples provided in this agreement are illustrative and non-exclusive.

None of these terms or conditions represent a waiver of any other terms and conditions of this agreement or the terms and conditions of any other agreement entered into between us and you. A waiver by either party of any term or condition of this agreement or any breach thereof, in any one instance, will not waive such term or condition or any subsequent breach thereof. Furthermore, our failure to assert any right or provision included in this agreement does not constitute a waiver of that right.

You may assign your rights under this agreement to any party that consents to, and agrees to be bound by, its terms and conditions; we may assign our rights under this agreement without condition. This agreement will be binding upon and will inure to the benefit of the parties, their successors and permitted assigns.

Additional Terms for Users And Organizations Established in the European Union

This Section applies to you if you and/or your organization is established in the European Union and to the use of the Services by end users located in the European Union. These terms supplement the general Terms of Service and are designed to comply with Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (Digital Services Act) and Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (AI Act).

Content Moderation Procedures

  1. Monitoring Responsibility. You are primarily responsible for monitoring content provided through your Suwali deployment and ensuring compliance with this Content Moderation Procedures section.
  2. Your Tools. You may flag conversations. Flagged conversations are reviewed by Meedan staff.
  3. Automated Content Moderation. Meedan does not currently employ automated content moderation tools. All moderation is conducted through your organization's monitoring and manual review.
  4. Human Oversight.
    1. A Meedan customer support representative will receive and review the report.
    2. The customer support representative will escalate to the Meedan engineering team, product team or organizational leadership as needed.
    3. A decision will be made to delete the reported content, block it, suspend user access, or take no action.
    4. The Meedan engineering team will implement the action.
    5. A customer support representative will notify you and/or your organization of the outcome.
    6. If suspension or termination is decided upon, you and/or your organization may appeal such decision by emailing support@suwali.io.
    7. Meedan will review appeals within a reasonable timeframe and notify you and/or your organization of the outcome.
  5. Decision Timelines. Meedan will review flagged content and take appropriate action within a reasonable timeframe of receiving notice, except for content involving immediate threats to life or safety, which will be addressed immediately.

Notice and Action Mechanism

  1. Reporting Illegal Content. Any person or entity may submit a notice to Meedan regarding allegedly illegal content or content that violates these Terms by email to support@suwali.io.
  2. Notice Requirements. To facilitate effective processing, notices should include:
    1. A sufficiently substantiated explanation of the reasons why the content is illegal or violates these Terms;
    2. A clear indication of the exact electronic location of the content (conversation identifier, date, time, or other identifying information);
    3. The name and email address of the individual or entity submitting the notice;
    4. A statement confirming the bona fide belief that the information is accurate and complete.
  3. Processing of Notices. Meedan will acknowledge receipt of notices and conduct a review in accordance with Section 2. Meedan is not obligated to take action on notices that are manifestly unfounded, incomplete, or abusive.

Statement of Reasons

When Meedan takes action in response to prohibited content, including warning you, requiring corrective action, suspending access, and terminating the relevant services agreement, Meedan will provide you with a statement of reasons containing:

  1. Information about whether the action was taken pursuant to a notice submitted under the Notice and Action Mechanism section of these Terms or Meedan's own detection;
  2. The facts and circumstances relied on in taking the decision, including whether the decision was taken through automated means or human review;
  3. Where applicable, information about the use of automated tools in the decision-making process;
  4. Reference to the contractual or legal ground for the action, including the specific provision of the Using our Services section of these Terms that was violated; and
  5. Information about available redress mechanisms under the Internal Complaint Handling section of these Terms.

Internal Complaint Handling

You may challenge content moderation decisions by submitting a complaint to support@suwali.io within 30 days of receiving a statement of reasons. The complaint must include:

  1. Your and your organization's identification and contact information;
  2. Reference to the specific decision being challenged;
  3. The grounds for challenging the decision; and
  4. Any supporting documentation.

Meedan will review complaints in good faith and respond within a reasonable timeframe. This internal complaint process does not affect your rights to seek judicial redress.

Notification to Law Enforcement Authorities

Where Meedan becomes aware of information giving rise to a suspicion that a criminal offence involving a threat to the life or safety of persons has taken place, is taking place, or is likely to take place, Meedan will promptly inform the relevant law enforcement or judicial authorities. Such offences include, but are not limited to:

  1. Terrorist offences;
  2. Sexual abuse and exploitation of children;
  3. Trafficking in human beings;
  4. Hate crimes, including incitement to violence or hatred; and
  5. Other serious criminal offences posing imminent danger.

When making such notifications, Meedan will provide all available relevant information, including the content in question, timing, explanation of the suspicion, and information necessary to identify the relevant parties, in accordance with Article 18 of the Digital Services Act.

Enforcement Actions

  1. General Framework. When prohibited content is identified, Meedan may take enforcement action against you, which may include: written warning; requirement to remove or address specific content; temporary restriction of specific features; formal notice requiring corrective action within a specified timeframe; temporary suspension of Suwali access; termination of the relevant services agreement; permanent ban from Suwali services; notification to law enforcement authorities; cooperation with regulatory investigations; and/or other measures Meedan deems appropriate.
  2. Factors Considered. In determining the appropriate enforcement action, Meedan will consider:
    1. The severity and nature of the violation;
    2. Your and your organization's history of compliance or previous violations;
    3. Whether the violation was intentional or inadvertent;
    4. Your and your organization's responsiveness and cooperation in addressing the issue;
    5. The potential harm to end users or third parties; and
    6. Any other relevant circumstances.
  3. Immediate Action for Serious Violations. Notwithstanding the general framework in subsection (1) above, Meedan reserves the right to take immediate action, including suspension or termination, without prior notice where content involves child sexual abuse material, terrorist content, imminent threats to life or safety, or other violations requiring urgent intervention.
  4. No Removal from Third-Party Platforms. You acknowledge that once content is transmitted through third-party messaging services (including WhatsApp, Telegram, or other platforms), Meedan has no technical ability to remove such content. Responsibility for content moderation on those platforms rests with the respective messaging service providers and applicable laws governing those platforms.

Points of Contact

  1. Point of Contact for Users and Authorities. In accordance with Articles 11 and 12 of the Digital Services Act, Meedan designates the following point of contact for direct communication:
    • Electronic contact: support@suwali.io
    • Postal address: 575 Market St., 4th Floor, San Francisco, California, 94105
    • Available languages: English

    This point of contact may be reached by:

    • End users and you and/or your organization for matters related to these Terms;
    • Member State authorities regarding compliance with the Digital Services Act; and
    • The European Commission and the European Board for Digital Services.
  2. Response Time. Meedan will respond to communications from Member State authorities without undue delay and will provide requested information or take requested action within the timeframes specified by applicable law.

Legal Representative in the European Union

Meedan will appoint a legal representative in the European Union in accordance with Article 13 of the Digital Services Act. Information about the appointed representative, including contact details, will be published at https://www.suwali.io/dsa and communicated to you.

Restrictions on Use Under the EU AI Act

Suwali is designed and intended solely as an operational chatbot tool for organizations to provide information to their audiences based on curated data sources. You must not use Suwali for any high-risk AI system application listed in Annex III of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (EU AI Act), including but not limited to biometric identification, employment decisions, credit scoring, law enforcement, administration of justice, educational assessments, or access to essential services, nor as a safety component under Article 6(1) of the EU AI Act. If you use Suwali for any such prohibited purpose, you and/or your organization will be deemed the "provider" under the EU AI Act and will assume all associated legal obligations, liability, and regulatory compliance requirements, and Meedan expressly disclaims any liability arising from such unauthorized use.

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