Social media acceptable usage policy

The Council uses social media to provide information, share news, promote events and respond to residents. Our main social media channels are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.

The Council’s social media accounts are monitored during working hours and we welcome comments, questions and suggestions on social media.

We understand sometimes you may be frustrated about things and if there is a problem with the Council, please let us know. However, we will not tolerate abusive or unacceptable comments and posts towards ourselves or other people across our social media channels.

We reserve the right to hide or remove posts or comments which we consider to be inappropriate. We may also choose to  block or mute accounts acting in an unreasonable way. We will not engage with the following behaviours:

• Swearing and offensive language
• Sexism
• Misogyny
• Racism
• Homophobia and transphobia
• Ageism
• Ableism (especially prejudice against people with disabilities)
• Intolerance of religion or religious belief
• Inciting hate or harm (for example, discrimination based on protected characteristics)
• False information
• Harassment
• Threats
• Personal or defamatory comment about individuals, including council staff and councillors
• Spamming with content unrelated to council business

We may report issues through the social media site and if necessary, threats, harassment and abuse will be reported to the police. Sharing malicious or offensive posts on social media may also be found to be an offence under the Malicious Communications Act.

People will not be notified directly when they are blocked, and we will not discuss on social media the reasons for a block being put in place.

If you are blocked from interacting with the council on social media and believe the action has been taken in error, please contact us by email with the details and we will look into what has happened.

This does not affect your right to make a complaint. If you are blocked from interacting with the council on social media and believe the action taken to be unfair you can make a complaint.

This policy applies to all corporate social media accounts run by the Council. It will be reviewed annually and published on the Council’s website.