Social Media Acceptable Use Guidelines

We reserve the right to remove any contributions that break these rules:

• Be civil, tasteful and relevant.
• Do not post messages that are unlawful, libellous, harassing, defamatory, abusive, threatening, harmful, obscene, profane, sexually oriented or racially offensive.
• Do not swear, use abusive language, or use block capital text formatting intended to convey aggression. 
• Do not post content copied from elsewhere, for which you do not own the copyright.
• Do not post the same message, or very similar messages, more than once, also called "spamming".
• Do not publicise your, or anyone else's, personal information, such as contact details.
• Do not advertise products or services.
• Do not impersonate someone else.

Pre‐election period

The Council itself, as opposed to its political administration, must be politically neutral in its communications.  The pre-election period, previously known as 'purdah', describes the period of time immediately before elections or referendums when specific restrictions on communications activity are in place. You will see less outgoing posts on our pages during these times.

Complaints

If you have a concern about something posted on a page that the Council is responsible for, you should Make a complaint

Council approach to connections on social media

There is no fixed approach on who the Council will have in its network, but as a guide, the connections may include the profiles of the following

• Local councillors or any other politician commenting on matters of interest
• public, private and voluntary sector partner organisations
• community organisations and campaigning groups
• media and journalists
• any other commentators or opinion formers that the Council may want to follow.

Endorsement

The Council does not endorse any individual or organisation merely by virtue of creating a social media connection, regardless of the terms used by social media providers such as 'follow' or 'like'.

Removal

Once connected, the Council will not remove a profile from its network unless there is some over‐riding reason to do so; for example, because it poses a significant and material risk to the Council's reputation and credibility.

Contacting us via social media

Our responses to replies, comments and direct messages depend on the individual service. Even if we do not reply, we are listening and will act on or pass on your comments as appropriate.

Our social media platforms are not intended to be used by the media or politicians to contact us. You should contact our communications team directly.