Social media - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube

Social media - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube

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User content rules - talking to us on social media sites

When engaging with us on social media, there are specific rules and guidelines to ensure respectful and productive interactions.

Purpose of our social media

We use social media to provide opportunities for genuine, open, honest, and transparent engagement with our residents.

We promote our services and campaigns and provide information and advice to our residents.

Respectful engagement

Please remember that when posting comments, you are interacting with real people.

Treat our staff with respect and politeness. Cyber-bullying is not acceptable on any platform.

You are solely responsible for the content you post or make available. We are not and cannot be responsible for the behaviour of users.

We cannot provide any warranty or guarantee as to the accuracy, timeliness, performance, completeness or suitability of the information and materials offered by others.

You must only use our social media sites to post, use or send content and messages that are legal (in respect of the law applicable in England and Wales, Scotland, and in any country from which it is posted) and appropriate to the page. In addition, you must comply with the standards in these terms.

We will determine, in our sole discretion, whether a contribution or any other activity breaches the standards in these terms. We will remove any comments posted that are seen to be in breach of this rule without notice. We reserve the right to remove any materials (including comments, pictures, and videos) that refer to council employees by name. We reserve the right to block/remove anyone from our social media channels without explanation or notice. This is at our discretion.

Complaints

Where a complaint is received via social media, the complainant will be signposted on how to make a complaint about our services to ensure confidentiality and privacy are maintained. Continuing to post to our channels on the same topic after being signposted will be considered as ‘spam’. Doing this may result in being blocked from our channels.

Response to comments

Our main social media channels are monitored by our Communications team. We are unable to handle direct customer queries or follow up on reports. For assistance with these matters, please contact our customer services team.

Monitoring offensive comments

While we actively monitor our platforms, if you notice any offensive comments we have missed, please send us a private message with a screenshot. You can also report the comment to the respective social media platform.

Acceptable conduct

We adhere to the guidelines of social networks and reserve the right to remove or report any comments breaking the following guidelines:

No offensive or abusive behaviour (includes swearing, inciting hate crime, etc.)
No spamming or unauthorized promotion
Do not publicize personal contact details or other personal information
Do not defame, abuse, harass, stalk, intimidate, threaten, or violate the legal rights of others
Do not impersonate any person or entity, or misrepresent yourself, your age, or your affiliation
Do not use or attempt to use another user’s account
Do not upload, post, share, or make available any obscene, indecent, unlawful, harmful, or defamatory content
Do not upload, post, share, or make available any material that encourages or incites hate or acts of terrorism
No unauthorized advertising, solicitations, promotional materials, 'junk mail', 'spam', or other forms of solicitation
Do not upload, post, share, or make available content unless you have the right to do so
Do not upload, post, share, or make available any material containing software viruses or other harmful code
Do not delete required author attributions, legal notices, or falsify the origin of any material
Do not share private or personal information of others without their consent

Consequences for non-compliance

To maintain a safe and inviting environment, we may delete, turn off, or block users who violate our guidelines.

Blocking individuals

We reserve the right to block repeat offenders of our acceptable use policy.

Turning off comments

We may turn off comments on posts covering sensitive topics or when consistent monitoring is not feasible.

Comments related to such posts on other posts will be deleted without response.

Unreasonable Behaviour Procedure

If we have applied our Unreasonable Customer Behaviour Procedure due to the nature of your contacts with the Council and introduced a communication plan or single point of contact as a result, your profile will be blocked, along with any alias accounts.

Hate crime

We have a zero-tolerance approach towards hate crime.

Any form of hate and harassment will be reported to the appropriate authorities.

Allegations against council staff and elected members

False accusations or misleading information will be removed.

Allegations of corruption, whether explicit or implied, are serious and should not be made lightly. Not agreeing with a decision does not mean it was corrupt. However, if anyone has evidence of fraudulent or corrupt activity by any officer or Member of the Council, they are asked to report it to the Council’s Monitoring Officer or to the Police urgently.

Safeguarding allegations or disclosures

Concerned about a child or young person? Call 0300 300 8585 immediately.

Out of hours: 0300 300 8123

Email: cs.accessandreferral@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk

If you think a child you know is being harmed or at risk of being harmed, please contact the Access and Referral Hub on 0300 300 8585, where you can discuss your concerns.

Safeguarding adults - report abuse or neglect

Refer to our safeguarding adults information.

Liking and following

Please do not be offended if we do not 'like' or 'follow' you on social media. This does not mean we do not like you or are not interested in what you have to say; it's just that the numbers can get too high for us to manage.

We sometimes follow or like people who provide information that is pertinent to our work as a local authority (for example, central government accounts, local media, and our partners) or those whose information we can pass on for the benefit of many local people.

However, just because we like or follow someone, retweet or share their information, does not mean that we endorse them.

Sharing and retweeting

We try and share or retweet information that we think will be of interest or use to residents of Central Bedfordshire. However, please don't be offended if we don't retweet something you want us to.

As a trusted organization, any sharing of information could be seen as endorsement of a particular view, individual, or organization, and it is important that we remain impartial and protect the council's reputation.

Pre-election period (previously known as 'Purdah')

In the run-up to an election - local, general, or European - councils must be very careful not to do or say anything that could be seen in any way to support any political party or candidate. We will continue to publish important service announcements using social media but may have to remove responses which could be perceived as influencing votes.