The Arc Council and the Safety Council

_Two different things with similar names. This page says which is which, because one of them is

running today and the other is not._

The Arc Council — running now

The Arc Council is a group of members who decide individual cases. Seats are held per

country, for a one-year term, capped at 100 per country. You apply from Safety → Arc Council

and staff select members; being selected is not enough on its own — you sign a confidentiality

undertaking before the queue appears.

What it decides

• Reported public content — a post, a comment or a Hub that somebody has reported. The

Council has 48 hours to respond.

• Community Note challenges that members could not settle by voting.
• Arc Bazaar order disputes that a buyer and a seller could not settle between themselves.

The Council has 72 hours, and the decision has to end in a refund, a replacement or a

release — see Buyer protection.

What it is shown, and what it is not

The Council sees content, not people. There is no author column, no reporter column and no

buyer or seller column anywhere in what a seat is given — the tables are built that way, not

merely filtered that way.

For an order dispute that means: the reason, both sides' written accounts, both sides'

photographs, the tracking record and what the order was worth. It does not include either

party's name, username, delivery address or purchase history.

The Council never sees Dating, Rishta, Private, business data, direct messages or personal data.

What no complaint can do

A seat is ended by a staff decision and by nothing else. Reports create issues; they never

touch anybody's membership, however many of them there are.

There is no public vote on money

Community Notes are settled by other members voting, because "is this claim misleading" is

something anybody can judge from the note itself. Order disputes are not put to a vote, and will

not be: a dispute contains a delivery address and a purchase history, and money attracts

organised voting that no threshold can fix. One accountable seat decides, and writes down why.

The Safety Council — not started yet

The Safety Council is a different body, and it is not running. It activates once Arc reaches

1,100 members. Until then the safety team runs policy directly.

• It will advise on policy: how the rules work in practice, anonymised patterns in reports

and appeals, protections for women, younger adults and vulnerable members, and transparency

reporting.

• It will have seats for everyday members, independent safety experts and younger adults.
• It will not decide individual cases and will not see private messages. That is the Arc

Council's job, and only for the case types listed above.

When it opens, Arc will invite expressions of interest. Watch your notifications and the Safety

Centre.

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See also: Buyer protection · Community Notes ·

Safety Centre · Transparency reports

Last updated: 12 August 2026