AKITB
A small civic service

You received an AKITB. Here's what that is.

AKITB is a moderated, anonymous, one-shot feedback service. Someone you encountered recently used it to let you know how they felt about an interaction. They paid a small fee. A human moderator reviewed it before it was sent. They cannot send you another one for at least a year, and they cannot send you anything else through this service.

One message
The sender cannot contact you again through AKITB. Ever. This is enforced at our database level. AKITB is not a channel; it is a single, terminating message.
Human-moderated
Every message is read by a human moderator before delivery. We reject roughly 30% of submissions. We do not approve grievances about identity, romantic history, or family disputes. We do not approve messages from people who hold institutional power over the recipient.
Genuinely anonymous
We do not reveal the sender's identity. The cleartext sender→recipient mapping is purged within 30 days of delivery. Subpoenas can compel only what we still have, which by design is very little.

What you can do.

Receiving an AKITB is not a legal action and creates no obligation. Most recipients do nothing, which is a valid choice. Some take other paths.

01
Nothing.
You don't have to act on this. Most recipients don't. The message has been delivered. There's no follow-up, no escalation, no record kept against you.
02
Apologize.
You can send a moderated apology back through us. We'll review it and consider passing it on. The sender retains the right to decline. Your identity is not revealed unless you ask us to.
03
Opt out.
One click and you'll never receive another AKITB. We honor this permanently and across all senders. Your hashed email is added to a permanent block list.
Was this sent in bad faith? If you believe this message violates our policy — for example, it was sent by an ex-partner, a family member you're estranged from, or someone trying to retaliate against you for protected activity — you can report it. We investigate every report. If we find the send was abusive, we ban the sender, refund nothing, and send you a written acknowledgment.

What we won't do.

We have a moderation policy, and these are the things it commits us to refuse. The list is intentionally short and absolute.

— We do not deliver messages targeting minors, public figures, or specific identity groups.
— We do not deliver messages from people who hold institutional power over the recipient (managers, professors, landlords, parents).
— We do not deliver messages about romantic or relational history.
— We do not allow follow-ups. Each sender → recipient pair gets one message, ever.
— We do not reveal sender identity to recipients, employers, or law enforcement absent a valid court order.
— We do not sell, license, or use messages or recipient data for any purpose other than delivery.
About the name

AKITB stands for "a kick in the balls." The service began as a satirical concept on a website by that name — a parody of on-demand delivery apps in which the deliverable was a literal kick. The joke pointed at something real: the asymmetry between people who behave badly in public and the people who absorb the cost of that behavior. We built the actual product to address that asymmetry without violence, anonymously, and with adult moderation.

The original site is still live at a-kick-in-the-balls.com. The name is both a memento and a warning: this product is a small civic action, not a punishment, and the line between those two things is exactly what we moderate against.

AKITB is operated by AKITB Holdings, Inc. We are an independent, customer-funded company. We do not take advertising. We do not sell data. We do not operate at the request of governments, employers, or third parties.