Community Guidelines

These guidelines are the rules for what a business may name, publish, sell and send on Oleon Workspace. They apply to everything you put on it or send through it: organization and project names and the addresses made from them, profile pictures, business details, catalogues and the products in them, bot flows and the replies an agent writes, message templates, broadcasts, attachments, and every conversation with an end user, on every channel you connect.

They apply to your business, to everyone in your organization, and to every bot and AI agent you set up. You are responsible for all of them. They form part of the terms and conditions, so a breach of these guidelines is a breach of the terms.

They sit on top of the law and on top of the rules of each channel you connect, not in place of either. Where WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger or another channel is stricter than these guidelines, its rule applies on that channel. Where the law is stricter, the law applies.

Each section says what is not allowed and, where it matters, what is allowed with care. Context counts: a pharmacy explaining how to take a medicine, a news service reporting violence, or a counsellor talking about self-harm can say things that would be refused anywhere else. Context never excuses the things marked as having no exceptions.

If something is not covered here but is plainly harmful, deceptive or illegal, assume it is not allowed. If you are unsure whether something is allowed, ask us before you send it.

An organization or project name is shown to everyone you invite, to our staff, and in the address of every page in it. A WhatsApp display name and profile picture are what every customer sees first. So they have to be real, and something anyone could read aloud.

Not allowed:

• Names that only say you are trying the product out, such as "Test", "Testing Org", "asdf" or "Sample Shop". If you want to try something, create a project with its real name and delete it afterwards.
• Profanity, sexual terms, slurs or insults, in any language or spelling, including words disguised with numbers or symbols.
• A name, logo or picture that pretends to be someone you are not: another business, a brand you do not own, a bank, a government body, a public figure, Olee AI, Oleon, WhatsApp or Meta.
• Words that imply a status you do not have, such as "official", "verified", "authorised" or "government".
• Profile pictures that are sexual, violent, hateful, or show someone else's face without their permission.

Names are checked automatically when an organization or project is created or renamed, against community word lists in English, Sinhala, Tamil and Hindi, and a refused name is never saved. Word lists are blunt, and a real business name can occasionally be caught by one. If that happens to yours, write to us and a person will look at it.

Not allowed:

• Opening an account for a business that does not exist, or that you are not authorised to act for.
• Giving false business details, such as a registration number, address, website or owner that is not yours.
• Opening a new organization or account to get around a refused name, a limit, a suspension or a closure.
• Selling, renting or handing over an organization, a project, a seat or a connected WhatsApp number to someone else without our written agreement.
• Running a business whose main activity is illegal, or that needs a licence you do not hold.

We may ask for proof of who you are and what your business does, such as a business registration certificate or a licence, before we approve an organization or at any time after. A business that cannot show it may be refused or suspended.

Not allowed:

• Threats of violence against anyone, including threats made as a joke or as a way to collect a debt.
• Calls for, encouragement of, or praise for violence against a person, a group or property.
• Instructions for making weapons or explosives, or for causing harm.
• Organising or coordinating violence, a riot or an attack.

Allowed, with care:

• Reporting on violence, condemning it, or raising awareness of it, without praising it or giving instructions.

Not allowed:

• Supporting, praising, representing, funding or recruiting for terrorist organisations, violent extremist groups, organised hate groups or criminal organisations.
• Sharing their propaganda, symbols or material in a way that promotes them.
• Using the product to coordinate crime: trafficking, extortion, money laundering, bribery or the sale of stolen goods.

This applies to organisations proscribed in Sri Lanka and to those Meta treats as dangerous organisations, because both decide whether your channel stays connected.

Not allowed:

• Encouraging, instructing or glorifying suicide or self-injury.
• Promoting eating disorders or dangerous weight loss.
• Selling products for the purpose of self-harm.

Allowed, with care:

• Support, recovery and prevention content, and pointing people to help. If someone tells your business or your agent they are at risk, give them a way to reach a person and a crisis line, such as the 1926 National Mental Health Helpline or Sumithrayo.

There are no exceptions to this section.

Not allowed:

• Any content that sexualises a child, including drawings, AI-generated images and text.
• Contacting a child for a sexual purpose, or grooming a child for any harmful purpose.
• Selling or offering anything age-restricted, such as alcohol, tobacco or gambling, to anyone under 18.
• Collecting a child's personal information without the consent of a parent or guardian.
• Child labour, or recruiting children for work the law does not allow.

We remove child sexual abuse material, close the account and report it to the authorities, without warning. If you come across it, do not forward or save it: tell us and the police straight away.

Not allowed:

• Human trafficking, forced labour, debt bondage or migrant smuggling.
• Recruiting people for jobs abroad unless you are an agency licensed by the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.
• Job offers that are fake, that charge the applicant to be hired, or that hide what the work actually is.
• Selling or arranging sexual services, or exploiting anyone sexually.
• Arranging marriages or adoptions for money, or the sale of organs.

Not allowed:

• Insulting, shaming, degrading or mocking a person, including a customer who complained.
• Repeated messages to someone who has asked you to stop.
• Threatening to expose someone, or to publish their information, to pressure them.
• Debt collection that threatens, shames or contacts a debtor's family, friends or employer.
• Sexual harassment, including unwanted sexual messages or images.

Not allowed:

• Publishing or sharing someone's private information without their consent: an identity card number, a home address, a phone number, medical or financial details, or a photograph of an identity document.
• Sharing intimate images of anyone without their consent, or threatening to.
• Recording a call or a person without the consent the law requires.
• Using a conversation to collect information for a purpose you did not tell the person about.

Not allowed:

• Attacking, demeaning, dehumanising or excluding people because of their race, ethnicity, caste, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, serious illness or age.
• Slurs, and harmful stereotypes presented as fact.
• Calling for segregation, exclusion or discrimination against a group, including refusing to serve or employ them.
• Advocating national, racial or religious hatred that incites discrimination, hostility or violence. In Sri Lanka this is also an offence under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Act, No. 56 of 2007.
• Insulting a religion, its followers or what they hold sacred.

Allowed, with care:

• Discussing, reporting on or condemning hate speech, and content from a group about its own experience.

Not allowed:

• Images or video of serious injury, death, gore, cruelty to people or animal cruelty, shared to shock, to celebrate or for entertainment.
• Sending graphic content to a customer who has not asked for it.

Allowed, with care:

• Medical, veterinary, safety or news content where the graphic detail is necessary, with a warning before it.

Not allowed:

• Pornography, nudity and sexually explicit content, including drawn and AI-generated content.
• Offering, asking for or arranging sexual services, including escort services and "massage" that implies them.
• Sexual messages, images or innuendo sent to a customer.
• Obscene material. This is also an offence under the Obscene Publications Ordinance.

Allowed, with care:

• Health and medical information, sexual and reproductive health services, breastfeeding, and art that is not sexually explicit.

Not allowed:

• Phishing, or any message written to get a password, a one-time code, a PIN or card details from someone.
• Advance-fee scams, fake prizes, fake lotteries, fake giveaways and fake charities.
• Investment schemes that promise guaranteed or unrealistic returns, pyramid schemes and Ponzi schemes.
• Loans or credit offered by anyone not licensed to offer them, and loans that demand a fee before the money is paid.
• Fake documents, certificates, degrees, licences, visas or identity cards, or offering to obtain one dishonestly.
• Pretending to be a bank, a courier, a government department, a utility or a well-known business to get money or information.
• Fake reviews, fake testimonials, fake followers and fake urgency.
• Money laundering, or moving money for someone you do not know.

Not allowed:

• False information that could cause physical harm, such as a fake cure, a false claim about a vaccine, or advice to stop a treatment someone needs.
• Health, safety or performance claims about a product that you cannot support.
• False information about an election: how, when or where to vote, who may vote, or the result.
• False information during an emergency, a disaster or unrest that could cause panic or harm.
• Manipulated or AI-generated images, audio or video that make a real person appear to say or do something they did not, presented as real.

The Online Safety Act, No. 9 of 2024 applies to statements made through the product, and you are answerable under it, and under the Penal Code, for what your business and its agents send.

Oleon Workspace is for businesses talking to their customers. Political parties, candidates and campaigns may not use it for campaign messaging without our written agreement, and where we agree, they must follow the Election Commission's rules and every channel's political content policy.

Not allowed:

• Political campaign messages sent by a business to its customers.
• Messages that try to stop people from voting, or that buy or sell votes.

Allowed, with care:

• Neutral, accurate civic information, such as where a polling station is or that a business will close on election day.

Not allowed:

• Messaging people who did not agree to hear from you, including numbers you bought, scraped, guessed or were given by someone else.
• Carrying on after someone asks you to stop. The first time is enough, in any wording, in any language.
• Sending more often than the person agreed to, or at hours that are unreasonable for them.
• Templates whose content does not match what they were approved for, or that hide what the message is.
• Messages built to get around a channel's limits, such as rotating numbers or splitting one broadcast across accounts.
• Misleading links, shortened links that hide where they go, and links to malware.

Tell people who you are when you first contact them, and make stopping easy. A WhatsApp number with a poor quality rating is limited or blocked by Meta, and we cannot restore it.

Not allowed:

• Malware, malicious links, or attempts to break into, probe, scrape, overload or reverse engineer the product or another customer's account. Unauthorised access is also an offence under the Computer Crime Act, No. 24 of 2007.
• Getting around a limit, a quota, a refused name or a suspension.
• Sharing a login. One person, one seat.
• Using the product to build or train a competing product, or to collect data about other businesses on it.

Everything in these guidelines applies to what your bot or AI agent says, just as it applies to what your team says. An agent does not change who is responsible.

Not allowed:

• Setting an agent up to produce anything these guidelines do not allow, or to work around them.
• Making someone believe they are talking to a person in order to mislead them, or giving an agent the name and identity of a real person without their consent.
• Using an agent to give medical, legal, financial or other advice that needs a professional or a licence.
• Letting an agent make a decision that seriously affects someone, such as refusing a loan, a job or a service, with no person able to review it.
• Generating a real person's voice or likeness without their consent.

Tell people they are talking to an automated agent where the law or the channel requires it, always give them a way to reach a person, and check what your agent says. If it gets something wrong, correct it with the customer.

These follow WhatsApp's Commerce Policy, which applies to every catalogue, product, order and payment on WhatsApp, and we apply them on every channel. It is stricter than Sri Lankan law in places, alcohol for example, and a business that breaks it can lose its WhatsApp number whether or not the sale was lawful. Where Meta's current Commerce Policy says more than this list, it applies. Do not offer, sell, promote or arrange the sale of:

Drugs

Illegal drugs, drug paraphernalia, recreational use of legal substances, and prescription medicines.

Tobacco and vaping

Cigarettes, cigars, tobacco, e-cigarettes, vapes and their accessories.

Alcohol

Alcoholic drinks, and kits for making them.

Unsafe supplements

Supplements, slimming products and "cures" that are unsafe, unapproved or make claims they cannot support.

Weapons

Firearms, ammunition, explosives, fireworks, and weapons including knives sold as weapons, and the parts and instructions for making them.

Animals

Live animals, endangered species, and products from them such as ivory, fur from protected species or shark fin.

Adult products

Sex toys, pornography, and adult services.

Body parts and fluids

Organs, blood, tissue, breast milk and other human body parts or fluids.

Gambling

Real-money gambling, betting, lotteries and games of chance, other than with the licences and channel approval they need.

Money and finance

Real, virtual or counterfeit currency, cryptocurrency and tokens, payday loans, binary options, and other financial products from anyone not licensed to sell them.

Documents and data

Identity cards, passports, licences, certificates, reviews, followers, accounts, and personal data such as contact lists.

Surveillance

Spyware, hidden cameras sold for covert recording, and equipment for intercepting calls or messages.

Counterfeit and stolen goods

Fakes and replicas of branded goods, and anything stolen.

Dangerous and recalled goods

Hazardous materials, and products that have been recalled or that fail safety standards.

Anything illegal

Any product or service that is illegal in Sri Lanka or where your customer is.

Some businesses are allowed only with the licence or registration the law requires, held before you sell and shown to us if we ask. These include:

Pharmacies and health care

A pharmacy, clinic or health product needs the registration the National Medicines Regulatory Authority and the Ministry of Health require. Prescription medicines still cannot be sold through a WhatsApp catalogue.

Financial services

Lending, deposits, leasing, money transfer and investment need a licence from the Central Bank of Sri Lanka or the Securities and Exchange Commission. Insurance needs the Insurance Regulatory Commission.

Foreign employment

Recruiting for jobs abroad needs a licence from the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.

Travel and tourism

Travel agents and tourist accommodation need the registration the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority requires.

Food

Food must be prepared, labelled and sold as food safety law requires.

Education

Do not claim a qualification is recognised or accredited unless it is.

Not allowed:

• Misleading anyone about a product, its price, its origin, its condition or its terms. This is also a matter for the Consumer Affairs Authority Act, No. 9 of 2003.
• Advertising a price or an offer you do not intend to honour.
• Taking payment for something you do not deliver, or do not intend to.
• Hiding fees, delivery charges or conditions until after someone has paid.
• Refusing a refund or a remedy the law entitles your customer to.
• Asking a customer for full card numbers, a CVV, a PIN or a one-time code in a chat.

Tell customers who you are, what they are paying, when it will arrive and how to complain, and answer complaints.

You decide why your customers' personal data is used, so the Personal Data Protection Act, No. 9 of 2022 applies to your business. Our privacy policy and data processing agreement say what we do on your behalf.

Not allowed:

• Buying, selling, renting, sharing or scraping contact lists or personal data.
• Collecting more than you need, or keeping it longer than you need it.
• Asking for national identity numbers, health information, financial details, biometric data or anything else sensitive in a chat, unless you have a real need for it and a lawful basis to hold it.
• Using what someone told you in a conversation for a purpose they were not told about.

Not allowed:

• Using names, logos, images, music, video or text you do not own and do not have permission to use. Trade marks and copyright are protected by the Intellectual Property Act, No. 36 of 2003.
• Selling counterfeits, or describing a product as genuine, original or authorised when it is not.
• Presenting yourself as a reseller, partner, distributor or agent of a brand unless you are one.

If you believe something on Oleon Workspace infringes your rights, write to us with what it is, where it is, what right you hold, and your contact details. We will look at it and tell the business concerned. A business that keeps infringing other people's rights will be suspended.

What we do depends on how serious the breach is, whether it has happened before, and how much harm it could cause. We keep a record of every breach, and repeated breaches lead to stronger action. In rising order:

• Refuse it at the point of entry, as the name check does.
• Warn you, and ask you to change or remove something within a reasonable time.
• Remove the content ourselves.
• Restrict features, such as broadcasts, an agent or a channel connection.
• Suspend a project or an organization, immediately and without notice.
• Close the account and end the agreement, as the terms allow.

We tell you what we did and why. We may act without notice, and say less, where the law requires it, where an investigation would be harmed, or where waiting would put someone at risk. Anything in the child safety section, credible threats of violence, and fraud in progress are always acted on immediately.

Suspending or closing a project for a breach does not entitle you to a refund. Fees already paid stay paid, including for the rest of the billing period and for any time the project is suspended, as the terms and the refund policy say. If an appeal shows we were wrong, we lift the suspension and credit you for the time it was off.

Where the law requires us to, we report to and cooperate with the authorities in Sri Lanka, and we keep what we need to for that. The channel providers also enforce their own policies, can act on your account without us, and we cannot overturn what they decide.

Write to the address at the foot of this page within 30 days of the decision. Say which organization or project it is, what we did, and why you think it was a mistake. A person, not the automatic check, will review it and reply with the outcome and the reason. If we were wrong, we reverse it.

If a business on Oleon Workspace sent you something that breaks these guidelines, write to the address at the foot of this page. Include the business name and the number or account that contacted you, what happened and when, and a screenshot if you have one. We do not tell the business who reported it.

If someone is in immediate danger, contact the police first. You can also report directly to WhatsApp from inside the chat.

We update these guidelines as the law, the channels and the product change. The date at the top says when they last changed, and a change that materially affects what you may do is notified the way the terms describe.