# Controlled Research Use Data Agreement

## 1. Dataset

This agreement governs access to and use of the BOUTEF dataset.

The Dataset is a controlled-access research resource for the study of misinformation in North African social media. It contains misinformation narratives, genuine reference items, user-generated reactions, and debunking or verification-related material collected from online sources and social media platforms.

The Dataset includes multilingual and multidialectal content, including Modern Standard Arabic, Algerian dialect, Tunisian dialect, Moroccan dialect, Arabizi, French, English, and code-switched text.

By requesting, accessing, downloading, or using the Dataset, the user agrees to the terms below.

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## 2. Permitted Use

The Dataset may be used only for **non-commercial research and educational purposes**.

Permitted uses include:

- academic research;
- benchmarking and evaluation;
- reproducibility studies;
- development of methods for misinformation detection;
- multilingual and dialectal NLP research;
- analysis of user reactions, debunking, and misinformation discourse.

The Dataset may not be used for commercial purposes without separate written permission from the Dataset providers.

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## 3. Prohibited Use

The Researcher shall not use the Dataset for:

- commercial product development or paid services;
- advertising, marketing, or user profiling;
- political targeting, persuasion, or influence operations;
- surveillance or monitoring of individuals or communities;
- law-enforcement profiling;
- harassment, discrimination, or targeting of individuals or groups;
- generation, amplification, or optimization of misinformation;
- attempts to infer sensitive personal attributes of users;
- any use that may cause harm to individuals, communities, or vulnerable groups.

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## 4. Controlled Access and Redistribution

Access to the Dataset is granted on an individual basis.

The Researcher shall not:

- redistribute the Dataset;
- mirror or republish the Dataset;
- upload the Dataset to public repositories;
- sublicense, sell, or transfer the Dataset;
- share the Dataset with unauthorized users;
- expose the Dataset through public APIs, demos, or applications.

The Dataset may not be uploaded to third-party services unless those services provide equivalent access control, confidentiality, and data-protection safeguards.

The Dataset providers reserve the right to approve, deny, suspend, or terminate access at any time.

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## 5. Research Team Access

The Researcher may provide access to the Dataset to students, research assistants, or collaborators working under their direct supervision only if each person has agreed to be bound by these terms.

The Researcher remains responsible for ensuring that all collaborators comply with this agreement.

Access must not be shared with individuals outside the approved research team.

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## 6. Privacy and Non-Identification

The Researcher acknowledges that the Dataset may contain user-generated content, social-media reactions, and platform-derived metadata.

The Researcher shall not attempt to:

- identify;
- re-identify;
- contact;
- track;
- profile;
- deanonymize;

any individual, author, commenter, account, or social-media user represented in or associated with the Dataset.

The Researcher shall not combine the Dataset with external resources in a way that could reasonably enable re-identification.

The Researcher shall not publish raw examples, screenshots, links, metadata, or model outputs that could reveal the identity of users, accounts, or private individuals.

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## 7. Copyright, Platform Terms, and Third-Party Rights

The Researcher acknowledges that some materials in the Dataset may originate from third-party online platforms, news organizations, fact-checking sources, or user-generated social-media content.

The Dataset providers make no representations or warranties that the Dataset is free from copyright, database rights, platform restrictions, or other third-party rights.

The Researcher is solely responsible for ensuring that their use of the Dataset complies with:

- applicable laws;
- institutional policies;
- research ethics requirements;
- platform terms of service;
- copyright and database-rights obligations.

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## 8. Publication and Citation

The Researcher may publish aggregate results, analyses, statistics, trained models, or evaluation findings derived from the Dataset, provided that such publication does not redistribute the Dataset or reveal identifiable user information.

Any publication using the Dataset must cite the associated dataset paper:
@misc{smaili2026boutefmultilingualcorpusfakenews,
      title={BOUTEF: A Multilingual Corpus for FakeNews in North Africa -- Language as a Weapon}, 
      author={Kamel Smaili and Yassine Toughrai and Amina Laggoun and David Langlois},
      year={2026},
      eprint={2606.00193},
      archivePrefix={arXiv},
      primaryClass={cs.CL},
      url={https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.00193}, 
}