1. Acceptance of terms
By accessing or using Mandate (the iOS and Android applications, the mandateapp.org website, or any related service), you agree to these Terms of Service. Mandate is operated by Jackson's Golden Assets LLC, a Michigan limited liability company. If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use Mandate.
2. Description of service
Mandate is a nonpartisan civic-information service. It reads federal legislation and generates plain-English summaries with equal-weight supporter and opponent arguments, tracks how members of Congress vote, covers executive orders and Supreme Court decisions, provides an AI assistant that answers questions about this material, offers a structured discussion feature ("The Well"), and includes optional civic-learning activities. Mandate does not endorse candidates, positions, or parties.
3. Eligibility
You must be at least 13 years old to use Mandate, or at least 16 in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom. By using Mandate, you represent that you meet the applicable age requirement.
4. Subscriptions and billing
Mandate offers free and paid tiers. Paid subscriptions (currently Voter at $4.99/month and Mandate at $14.99/month, subject to change with notice) renew automatically until canceled. Billing is handled by the app store through which you purchased your subscription — Apple's App Store on iOS, and Google Play on Android. You can cancel anytime through that store's subscription settings (your Apple ID subscription settings on iOS, or your Google Play subscription settings on Android), which you can also reach from within the app. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period; no partial refunds are issued for unused time within a billing period unless required by law.
5. Informational nature of content
Mandate provides information, not advice.
- Bill summaries, vote records, and analyses are informational. They are not legal advice, financial advice, political advice, or voting recommendations.
- AI-generated content (bill summaries, AI assistant responses) may contain errors. We make best efforts to ensure accuracy through multi-stage review, but you should verify important facts against primary sources before acting on them.
6. Nonpartisan operating principle
Mandate is structurally nonpartisan. We do not accept political donations, and we do not endorse candidates, parties, or positions. Some features let you tell us your own political views — for example, a self-described lean or arguments you write in The Well — and we use that information only to operate those features. We do not build political profiles of you, we do not infer your political affiliation to target you, and we do not use your political views for advertising. This principle is operationalized in how the product is built, not just stated here.
7. User accounts
You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account. Notify us immediately at privacy@mandateapp.org if you suspect unauthorized access.
8. Acceptable use
You agree not to:
- Use Mandate to harass, threaten, or impersonate any person or member of Congress
- Attempt to reverse-engineer, decompile, or extract source code
- Access the service through any automated means (scrapers, bots) except as expressly permitted
- Attempt to disrupt or interfere with the service or other users
- Use Mandate to violate any applicable law
9. User content and The Well
Mandate includes features — most notably The Well — that let you submit content, including written arguments, discussion posts, topic nominations, and a self-described political lean ("User Content").
Your responsibility. You are responsible for the User Content you submit. You represent that you have the right to submit it and that it does not violate these Terms or any law.
License to Mandate. You retain ownership of your User Content. By submitting it, you grant Mandate a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, display, adapt, and distribute your User Content for the purpose of operating and providing Mandate — for example, displaying your arguments within a debate, organizing discussion, and producing summaries of a debate's outcome. This license ends when you delete your User Content or your account, except that (a) we may retain de-identified copies as described in our Privacy Policy, and (b) content others have already engaged with (such as votes on a topic nomination) may remain in de-identified form.
Prohibited content. You agree not to submit User Content that:
- is unlawful, defamatory, harassing, threatening, or abusive;
- incites violence or promotes hatred against people based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or other protected characteristic;
- impersonates any person, including a member of Congress or a Mandate representative;
- contains another person's private information;
- is spam, or is intended to manipulate votes, rankings, or discussion;
- infringes anyone's intellectual property or other rights.
Moderation. Mandate may review, moderate, remove, or decline to display User Content, and may limit or suspend your access to community features, at our discretion and consistent with these Terms — including to enforce the rules above and to maintain constructive, good-faith discussion. We are not obligated to monitor User Content, but we may do so. Because Mandate is nonpartisan, moderation is directed at conduct and rule violations, not at the political viewpoint expressed.
Reporting. You can report User Content you believe violates these Terms through the in-app reporting tools or at mandateapp.org/support.
10. Intellectual property
Mandate's name, brand mark (the split M), software, and original content are the property of Jackson's Golden Assets LLC and protected by applicable intellectual property laws. Bill text, vote records, and other government documents surfaced in Mandate are public records and remain so.
11. Third-party content
Mandate surfaces news articles and primary government documents from third parties. We do not control or endorse third-party content. Each news source carries a single lean label assigned and maintained by Mandate.
12. Disclaimers
MANDATE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or accurate in every instance.
13. Limitation of liability
To the maximum extent permitted by law, Mandate's total liability for any claim arising from your use of the service will not exceed the amount you paid us in the 12 months preceding the claim, or $100 if you paid us nothing. We are not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages.
14. Termination
We may suspend or terminate your access if you violate these Terms. You may stop using Mandate at any time; you may delete your account through the app or by contacting us at privacy@mandateapp.org.
15. Apple App Store distribution
If you obtained the Mandate app through the Apple App Store, you acknowledge and agree that:
- This agreement is between you and Mandate only, not Apple. Mandate, not Apple, is solely responsible for the Mandate app and its content. Your license to use the app is a limited, non-transferable license to use it on any Apple-branded device you own or control, as permitted by the App Store Terms of Service.
- Maintenance and support. Mandate is solely responsible for providing maintenance and support for the app, as described in these Terms and through mandateapp.org/support. Apple has no obligation to furnish any maintenance or support.
- Warranty.To the maximum extent permitted by law, Apple has no warranty obligation with respect to the app. If the app fails to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple, and Apple may refund the purchase price you paid for the app (if any). Except for that refund, Apple has no other warranty obligation, and any other claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs, or expenses attributable to a failure to conform to a warranty are Mandate's responsibility.
- Product claims. Mandate, not Apple, is responsible for addressing any claims relating to the app or your use of it, including product-liability claims, claims that the app fails to conform to a legal or regulatory requirement, and claims arising under consumer-protection or privacy law.
- Intellectual property. In the event of any third-party claim that the app or your use of it infringes that party's intellectual property rights, Mandate, not Apple, is solely responsible for the investigation, defense, settlement, and discharge of such a claim.
- Third-party beneficiary. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms, and upon your acceptance, Apple has the right to enforce these Terms against you as a third-party beneficiary.
- Legal compliance. You represent that you are not located in a country subject to a US Government embargo or designated as a "terrorist supporting" country, and that you are not listed on any US Government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
16. Business transfers
If Mandate is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, or sale of assets, these Terms and your account may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you of any change in ownership or control that affects these Terms or your information, consistent with our Privacy Policy.
17. Governing law and disputes
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Michigan, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Any disputes arising from these Terms or your use of Mandate will be resolved in the state or federal courts located in Wayne County, Michigan, unless required otherwise by applicable consumer-protection law.
18. Changes to these Terms
We may update these Terms. Material changes will be communicated through the app or by email at least 30 days before they take effect. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page always reflects the current version.
19. Contact
For questions about these Terms, contact us at privacy@mandateapp.org. For help with the app or your account, visit mandateapp.org/support.