Terms of Use

Welcome to Beehive!
These Terms of Use (“Terms”) govern your use of Beehive and provide information about the use of our platform and/or any of its products, features, applications, services, technologies and software (“Service”). When you subscribe to or use Beehive, you agree to these Terms. They therefore constitute an agreement between you and Beehive News Ltd.

The Beehive Service

We agree to provide you with the Service. The Service includes all of the Beehive products, features, applications, services, technologies and software that we provide to advance Beehive’s mission: To rebuild trust in information.

The Service consists essentially on assessing and promoting news articles and information published by any media outlets that we deem relevant, under the “fair dealing” principle, or that we choose to partner with (“Media Outlets”). We do not have any rights or control over the content and their intellectual property. We do not host in our platform any content that has not been previously authorised, in which case we merely redirect readers to the Media Outlet’s platform or website. The Service is based on the following aspects:

    • Fighting personal bias. Through user ratings and algorithms, we promote articles that are trustworthy, complete and easy to read.
    • Fighting political bias. We promote articles from reliable sources spread across the political spectrum, so that you can build your own, well-informed opinion. Through user ratings and algorithms, political articles are classified on how far left or right they lean. After you read any such article, you can be directed to a well-rated article with an opposing point of view, there being one.
    • Fighting regional bias. On Beehive, you can find links to articles published by some of the best Media Outlets around the globe, so that you can build a global understanding of key topics or subjects, and not be limited to the opinion of journalists from a specific country or region. Instead of just reading what has been said about a country or region, read also what they are saying about themselves, first-hand.
    • Fighting confirmation bias. We don’t show you just what we think you’d like, and we do so on purpose. Of course you can intentionally choose to use filters that help navigate information and find topics of your interest, but we believe you should be exposed to the same thing as everyone else, as to avoid creating information bubbles that limit your understanding of the world around you.
    • Ensuring easy access to high-quality information. Media Outlets and information are analysed by a multitude of fact-checkers and independent agencies. We only promote articles published by outlets most seriously commited to quality information, and are constantly reviewing our partners. All articles promoted in the platform are also filtered so that they are all accessible by our subscribers and there are no paywalls (even if sometimes you may have to register for free, or can only read a limited number of articles free of charge).
    • Research and innovation. Beehive never expresses its own opinion on articles and outlets. We rely solely on user ratings and proprietary tools and algorithms we develop to classify articles, based on impartial criteria (this can be, for example, whether articles cite primary sources of information, offer a sense of magnitude for the numbers they use versus just absolute numbers and so on). We are constantly innovating and refining our methodology.

How you fund Beehive and support a more responsible media industry

When you don’t pay for a service you use, it is very likely that the product is you. On Beehive, the costs incurred with the provision of the Service are covered by the small fee you pay to Beehive, preserving our independence. By promoting the best-rated articles, Media Outlets on Beehive are rewarded by the quality of their content (which we can measure for example, by how well their articles are rated, or how many times they are read). Therefore, in this business model, you directly sponsor good and responsible journalism. In exchange, Media Outlets provide you with better and more trustworthy content.

The Data Policy

Providing our Service requires collecting and using your information. The Data Policy explains how we collect, use and share information across Beehive and across the world. You must agree to the Data Policy to subscribe to Beehive and / or use our Service.
As part of our mission, we may provide partners with reports about their performance to help them understand how people are interacting with their content and produce better, more trustworthy information. We do not however share or sell your personally identifiable data (information such as your name or email address that by itself can be used to contact you or identifies who you are) unless you give us specific permission.

Your commitments

In return for our commitment to provide the Service, we require you to make the below commitments to us.

How you can’t use Beehive. Providing a safe and open Service for a broad community requires that we all do our part.

    • You can’t do anything unlawful, misleading or fraudulent or for an illegal or unauthorised purpose.

    • You can’t violate (or help or encourage others to violate) these Terms or any of our policies.

    • You can’t do anything to interfere with or impair the intended operation of the Service. This includes misusing any reporting, dispute or appeals channel, such as by making fraudulent or groundless reports or appeals.

    • You can’t attempt to create accounts or access or collect information in unauthorised ways. This includes creating accounts or collecting information in an automated way without our express permission.

    • You can’t sell, licence or purchase any account or data obtained from us or our Service. This includes attempts to buy, sell or transfer any aspect of your account or information you have had access to through the Service or through Beehive.

    • You can’t modify, translate, create derivative works of or reverse engineer our products or their components.

    • You can’t use Beehive to intentionally promote particular Media Outlets (for example, by giving their articles numerous high ratings without having read their content), regardless of whether or not you are working for them.

Permissions you give to us. As part of our agreement, you also give us permissions that we need to provide the Service.

      • Permission to use your username, profile picture and information about you and your actions.
        You give us permission to show your username, profile picture and information about your actions next to or in connection with any content that you engage with, without any compensation to you. For example, we might show a Media Outlet information about how many people read and / or rated their articles and their demographics, without disclosing your personal identity. Read more about this under our Data Policy. If we choose to display any ads, offers or sponsored content, they will be identified as such.

     

    • You agree that we can download and install updates to the Service on your device.

Additional rights we retain

    • If you select a username or similar identifier for your account, we may change or delete it if we believe it is appropriate or necessary to do so (for example, if it infringes someone’s intellectual property, impersonates another user or could be perceived as offensive).
    • You can only use our intellectual property and trademarks or similar marks when sharing articles you have read through Beehive in other social media platforms by using our sharing button and features, or with our prior written permission.
    • If you use content covered by intellectual property rights that we have and make available in our Service (for example, images, designs, videos, or sounds we provide that you add to content you create or share), we retain all rights to our content (but not yours).
    • You must obtain written permission from us or under an open-source licence to modify, create derivative works of, decompile or otherwise attempt to extract source code from us.

Disabling or terminating your account

    • We can refuse to provide or stop providing all or part of the Service to you (including terminating or disabling your access to Beehive) immediately to protect our community or services, or if you create risk or legal exposure for us, violate these Terms or any of our policies, if you infringe intellectual property rights, or where we are permitted or required to do so by law. We can also terminate or change the Service, remove or block content or information shared on our Service, or stop providing all or part of the Service if we determine that doing so is reasonably necessary to avoid or mitigate adverse legal or regulatory impacts on us.
    • If you delete or we disable your account, these Terms shall terminate as an agreement between you and us. We might however still keep information about you as per our  Data Policy.

Our agreement

    • If any aspect of this agreement is unenforceable, the rest will remain in effect.
    • Any amendment or waiver to our agreement must be in writing and signed by us. Failing to enforce any aspect of this agreement, shall not be deemed a waiver.
    • We reserve all rights not expressly granted to you.
    • This agreement does not give rights to any third parties, other than the ones we describe under our  Data Policy.
    • You cannot transfer your rights or obligations under this agreement without our consent.
    • Our rights and obligations can be assigned to others. For example, this could occur if our ownership changes (as in a merger, acquisition or sale of assets) or by law.

Who is responsible if something happens

    • Our Service is provided “as is”, and we can’t guarantee that it will be safe and secure or will work perfectly all the time. To the extent permitted by law, we also disclaim all warranties, whether express or implied, including the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement.
    • We also don’t control what Media Outlets and others do or say, and we aren’t responsible for their (or your) actions or conduct (whether online or offline) or content (including unlawful or objectionable content). We also aren’t responsible for services and features offered by other people or companies, even if you access them through our Service.
    • Our responsibility for anything that happens on the Service (also called “liability”) is limited as much as the law will allow. If there is an issue with our Service, we can’t know what all the possible impacts might be. You agree that we won’t be responsible (“liable”) for any lost profits, revenues, information or data, or consequential, special, indirect, exemplary, punitive or incidental damages arising out of or related to these Terms and the Services, even if we know that they might be possible.

How we will handle disputes

For the time being, we intend to operate Beehive exclusively in the United Kingdom. Therefore this agreement, and any dispute, controversy, proceedings or claim of whatever nature arising out of or in any way relating to this agreement or its formation (including any non-contractual disputes or claims), shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the English law. To the extent permitted by law, this does not change in the event you are able to and i choose to subscribe to Beehive from another country.

Unsolicited material

We always appreciate receiving feedback or other suggestions from our users, but may use them without any restrictions or obligation to compensate you for them, and are under no obligation to keep them confidential.

Updating these Terms

We may change our Service and policies, and we may need to make changes to these Terms so that they accurately reflect our Service and policies. In those events, if you continue to use the Service, you will be bound by the updated Terms. If you do not want to agree to these or any updated Terms, you can delete your account.
Thanks for using our Service, and collaborating to a world with better and more trustworthy information!