Social media accounts - rules and guidelines

Rules and guidelines 

Rules around the type of content Gosport Borough Council will accept on its social media pages.

A post may not be published or may be deleted if they meet any of these criteria

• comments that are not topical to the article being discussed;
• comments that are politically motivated;
• profane language or content (unless appropriate to the site);
• material that perpetuates or promotes discrimination of protected characteristics. These characteristics can include but are not limited to, race, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity, marriage or civil partnership or gender reassignment;
• sexual content or links to sexual content;
• solicitation of commerce;
• illegal conduct or encouragement/support of illegal activities;
• information that compromises or may compromise the safety or security of the public or public systems;
• content that violates the legal ownership interests of any other party.

Gosport Borough Council reserves the right to restrict or remove any content that is deemed in violation of this social media policy or any applicable law.

Social media etiquette

Social media allows people great freedom in how they communicate and express themselves. To help ensure everyone is able to equally benefit from social media sites we would ask people to abide by the following principles

• I will tell the truth;
• I will write deliberately and with accuracy;
• I will acknowledge and correct mistakes promptly;
• I will preserve the original post, using notations to show where I have made changes so as to maintain the integrity of my publishing;
• I will never delete a post, although a poster could delete their own post and repost to correct information where there is an error such as an incorrect link, providing no one has liked or commented on it;
• I will not delete comments unless they do not meet the requirements of this policy;
• I will reply to emails and comments when appropriate, and do so promptly;
• I will strive for high quality with every post - including basic spell checking;
• I will stay on topic;
• I will disagree with other opinions respectfully;
• I will link to online references and original source materials directly;
• I will disclose conflicts of interest;
• I will keep private issues and topics separate from work issues and topics.

Gosport Borough Council's Social Media Policy.