Social Media House Rules

We post a wide range of content, ranging from community events and projects to service updates and important information. You can find us on many social media channels – see our full list of Social Media Channels here.

We want our channels to be a friendly place where everyone can engage in a sensible and informative manner, so we’ve put together some house rules to ensure our space is positive and helpful for all.

Please note, you are responsible to comply with the rules of the social media platform you are using, and you are also responsible for anything you post or comment on our content.

 

Rules

Please treat others with respect, including residents posting comments and the Council’s own staff, including Councillors.

We encourage discussion and positive dialogue on our social media channels, however we reserve the right to remove posts, hide or remove comments and block users that do not follow our house rules.

We may remove, hide or report any rude, unlawful, or offensive comments including:

• Abuse – swearing, personal attacks, threats or harassment
• Spam – external links, promotions or scams
• Hate speech – discrimination, racism, sexism etc.
• Content that violates legal rights of others or intellectual property rights
• Repetitive, irrelevant comments or factually incorrect statements
• Inappropriate comments – sexually explicit or otherwise offensive, including comments directed toward our staff

Where possible, we may also disable comments during the pre-election period.

If users continue to go against our house rules, we will block them from our social media channels. If you need to get in contact with our communications team, please email info@castlepoint.gov.uk with your enquiry.

Please use the council’s formal complaints process if you want to make a complaint about the council or any council staff.

Finally, our Communications Team that runs our social media channels are humans too, and occasionally make mistakes. If you notice a mistake, please get in touch and we’ll be happy to make corrections.