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Takedown and correction requests

If something published here should not be, this is where to say so.

What we commit to

The clock starts when your request arrives, and you get both deadlines in writing the moment you send it.

  • A person replies within 48 hours. Not an autoresponder — a reply from someone who has read it.
  • A decision within 10 business days, with the reason for it.

“Decision” includes no. We would rather tell you we are not going to do something, and why, than leave you waiting to find out. If a deadline is going to slip we will say so before it does.

A court order is acted on when it arrives, ahead of everything else.

What you can ask on

Pick whichever fits best; if none of them do, use “something else” and we will work it out. Each one says what we will and will not do, so that you know before you write rather than ten business days after.

Something in a listing is wrong

A practice address, phone number, credential, licence number or affiliation that is out of date or was never right.

What to include: The page, the specific field, and what it should say. A link to the licence record or the practice's own site is usually enough.

What we do: This is the fastest route and rarely needs a takedown at all — we correct the field. Listings are built from state veterinary board records and published practice information, so a correction that disagrees with the board's record gets checked against the board.

Personal information about me has been published

A home address, personal phone number, or other private detail about you appearing in a review or a listing. Also a request to erase personal data we hold about you.

What to include: The page and the exact detail. You do not need to explain why it is private.

What we do: Private details in a review breach Review Guideline RG-02 and are removed without weighing anything against them. A veterinarian's name, practice address and licence status are public professional information from a public register, and are not removed on this ground — see the licence-record ground below. Erasure of an account and everything posted from it is self-service in your settings.

We need to know who you are to act on this one — the answer depends on it.

A review states something false about me as fact

A review that asserts a specific untrue thing happened — not a review whose opinion of your work you disagree with.

What to include: The review, the sentence, and what actually happened. If you have records — an appointment log, a chart, correspondence — say so; you do not have to attach them to the form.

What we do: Reviews are written by users, and this platform is not their publisher (47 U.S.C. § 230). We do not adjudicate whether a customer's account of their own visit is true, and we do not remove a review because it is unflattering. What we do: check it against Review Guideline RG-07, which requires a reviewer to say what happened rather than assert a conclusion about your competence or conduct, and remove or ask for an edit where it does not. We also publish your reply — a response from the practice is visible to every future reader, which a deletion is not. A court order directed at the content is honoured immediately; see the court-order ground.

We need to know who you are to act on this one — the answer depends on it.

Someone is posting as me

An account, profile or review that presents itself as you or as your practice.

What to include: What is impersonating you, and enough to show the real you is you — a practice email domain, the licence number on file.

What we do: Acted on quickly. Impersonation is not a disagreement about content; it is a false statement about authorship, which nothing on this site is for.

We need to know who you are to act on this one — the answer depends on it.

I object to my licence or practice record being published

Your name, credentials, licence number, licence state or practice affiliation appearing in the directory at all.

What to include: Which listing, and which part of it.

What we do: State veterinary licensing boards publish these records so that the public can check who is licensed, and republishing a public register is the basis on which this directory exists. We do not delist a currently-licensed veterinarian on request. We will correct anything wrong, remove a record the board no longer publishes, and tell you exactly which source a fact came from.

We need to know who you are to act on this one — the answer depends on it.

A review breaks the Review Content Guidelines

Harassment, advertising, a review from someone who was never a client, the same review posted repeatedly, medical advice — anything in the published guidelines.

What to include: The review and, if you know it, the rule number. You do not have to name a rule; we will.

What we do: Handled as a moderation decision against a numbered rule, and the decision names the rule. This is also what the Report button on a review does, and that is the quicker path.

A court has ordered the content removed

An order, injunction or judgment directed at specific content.

What to include: The order itself, the court and case number, and which content it covers.

What we do: Honoured on receipt, ahead of the queue, and recorded. We check that the order is genuine and covers the content named — forged and overbroad orders are a known problem in review takedowns — but we do not relitigate it.

We need to know who you are to act on this one — the answer depends on it.

Something else

Anything the grounds above do not describe.

What to include: What the content is, and what you are asking for.

What we do: Read by a person on the same clock as everything else. If it turns out to fit one of the grounds above, we apply that ground's answer and say so.

Things with a faster route

  • A single review that breaks the Review Content Guidelines — use the Report button on the review itself.
  • Deleting your own account and everything you posted — that is in your settings, and it does not need anybody's approval.
  • A security vulnerability — see the security policy.

Make a request

No account needed. We do need a name and a working email address: the reply we have committed to has to go somewhere.

Be specific about which words or which field. Read “what to include” above for the ground you picked.

Your name, email and what you write are kept as the record of this request and of how it was handled. They are not published and not used for anything else. See the privacy policy.

If we say no

You will get the reason in writing. If you think the reason is wrong, reply to it — a second person reads any request that comes back. Beyond that, the answer stands, and nothing here waives anything you could do about it elsewhere.

Written correspondence about a request already made can go to legal@ratemyveterinarian.com. Please use the form for a new request — it is the one route with a clock on it.