Last updated: August 2, 2026
These Terms of Service govern your access to and use of the New Zealand edition of Referendum.social, available at https://nz.referendum.social.
By accessing the website, creating an account, publishing content, voting, commenting or otherwise using Referendum.social, you agree to these Terms of Service. If you do not agree with these terms, you should not use the platform.
Referendum.social is an independent online polling and public opinion platform. It allows users to create polls, vote, discuss current issues and view the responses of other participants.
The New Zealand edition focuses primarily on politics, society, public policy, culture, the economy, sport and other topics relevant to people in New Zealand.
Referendum.social is not affiliated with the New Zealand Government, the New Zealand Electoral Commission, local authorities, political parties, candidates, campaigns or media organisations.
The word “referendum” on this website refers to an online public poll or community vote.
Polls published on Referendum.social are not legally binding referendums, elections or official government consultations. They are not administered by the New Zealand Government, the New Zealand Electoral Commission or any local electoral authority.
Voting on Referendum.social does not register a vote in any official election or referendum and does not replace participation in an official electoral process.
You may use Referendum.social only if you are legally able to agree to these terms and your use of the website is permitted under applicable law.
You are responsible for:
You must not share your password with another person or knowingly allow another person to misuse your account.
If you believe that your account has been accessed without permission, please contact us through the Contact Us page.
Certain features may require a registered account.
You must provide information that is reasonably accurate and must not impersonate another person, organisation, government authority or public institution.
Referendum.social may restrict, suspend or terminate an account when there is reasonable evidence of:
Users may create polls, submit answer options, publish descriptions, post comments and provide other content through the platform.
You remain responsible for the content you submit. You must have the right to publish it and must not knowingly submit content that:
More detailed rules for polls, comments and participation will be available in the Community Guidelines.
When you submit content to Referendum.social, you grant the platform a non-exclusive, worldwide and royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, display, format and distribute that content as necessary to operate, promote and improve the service.
This licence allows Referendum.social to display your poll, make it accessible on relevant platform pages, create previews, organise it through tags and categories and preserve it as part of the public discussion.
You retain any ownership rights that you may have in your original content.
Referendum.social may review and edit user-submitted content after publication.
Possible changes include:
Such changes should preserve the central subject of the poll. Referendum.social should not alter a published poll so substantially that existing votes appear to answer a completely different question.
Our editorial principles are explained in the Editorial Policy.
Polls are generally published through the user-facing system without mandatory advance approval.
Moderation may take place after publication following a user report, an internal review, unusual activity or the discovery of a possible violation.
Referendum.social may:
Publication of content does not mean that Referendum.social has reviewed, verified, approved or endorsed it.
You must not attempt to manipulate poll results through:
Legitimate sharing of a poll is allowed. Users may invite others to participate, provided that the poll is not falsely represented as an official New Zealand vote and prohibited manipulation methods are not used.
Referendum.social may investigate unusual activity and remove votes that reasonably appear to be automated, fraudulent or otherwise invalid.
Poll results show how participating users answered a particular question.
Unless explicitly stated otherwise, results are not official government data, official election polling or a scientific measurement of the entire New Zealand population.
Users, publishers and other third parties must not present results in a misleading way. A result should normally be attributed to participants in the specific Referendum.social poll from which it was obtained.
Further information is provided in the Poll Methodology.
Public poll results, charts and aggregated statistics may be referenced in articles, reports, research, social media posts and other publications.
When Referendum.social data is used, a direct link to the relevant poll must be provided as the original source.
You must not:
Users may disagree strongly with polls, public figures, policies and one another.
However, users must not publish credible threats, engage in targeted harassment, disclose private information, impersonate others or deliberately disrupt discussions.
Referendum.social may remove comments or restrict accounts when conduct creates a risk to users, violates applicable law or materially interferes with the service.
The Referendum.social name, website design, software, original platform text, branding and other materials owned by the platform may be protected by intellectual property law.
You may not copy, reproduce, sell, reverse engineer or commercially exploit protected parts of the platform without permission, except where such use is permitted by law.
This section does not prevent users from lawfully quoting or citing publicly available poll results in accordance with these terms.
You must not:
Referendum.social may contain links to third-party websites, news reports, social platforms or other external services.
We do not control these external services and are not responsible for their content, security, availability or privacy practices.
The inclusion of a link does not necessarily mean that Referendum.social endorses the linked website or its views.
Referendum.social aims to keep the platform available and functioning, but uninterrupted or error-free access cannot be guaranteed.
The service may be temporarily unavailable because of:
Features may be added, changed, restricted or discontinued as the platform develops.
Polls, comments, statistics and other content on Referendum.social are provided for public discussion and general informational purposes.
They should not be treated as legal, medical, financial, electoral or other professional advice.
You should obtain appropriate professional advice before making an important decision based on information found on the platform.
Referendum.social is provided on an “as available” basis.
To the extent permitted by applicable law, we do not guarantee that:
Nothing in these terms excludes any right or remedy that cannot lawfully be excluded under New Zealand law.
To the extent permitted by applicable law, Referendum.social will not be liable for indirect, incidental or consequential loss arising from:
These limitations apply only to the extent permitted by New Zealand law.
Information about the collection, use, storage and protection of personal information is provided in the Privacy Policy.
By using Referendum.social, you acknowledge that personal information will be handled as described in that policy.
You may report content, suspected voting manipulation, privacy concerns or other possible violations through the Contact Us page.
Please include:
A person affected by a moderation decision may also request a review through the Contact Us page.
Referendum.social may restore content, make additional edits, maintain a restriction or uphold the original decision after reviewing the available information.
You may stop using Referendum.social at any time.
Referendum.social may restrict or terminate access when a user violates these terms, creates a security or legal risk, manipulates voting or repeatedly abuses the platform.
Termination of an account does not necessarily require removal of all previously published public content, particularly where preserving a poll is necessary to maintain the integrity and context of recorded votes and discussions.
Requests concerning personal information should be made in accordance with the Privacy Policy.
Referendum.social may update these Terms of Service when the platform, its features, its policies or applicable legal requirements change.
The current version will be published on this page with an updated revision date.
Continued use of the platform after updated terms take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised terms, to the extent permitted by applicable law.
These Terms of Service are governed by the laws of New Zealand, without limiting any mandatory rights that may apply to a user under applicable law.
Any dispute relating to these terms or the use of the New Zealand edition of Referendum.social should first be raised through the Contact Us page so that the matter can be reviewed and, where possible, resolved informally.
Questions about these Terms of Service may be submitted through the Contact Us page.
