Social Media Policy

Social Media Acceptable Use Policy

Boston Borough Council uses a range of social media channels to provide information and advice to our residents and we welcome comments and engagement with our posts.

We understand that people have differing views on many issues, but we will not condone swearing, discrimination or abusive posts.

Commenting on a Boston Borough Council social media site

Our social media platforms are actively monitored during the Councils opening times and although comments will not be edited, they may be deleted, reported or blocked if the contents* violate the policy described here:

• Comments should be related to the posted topic for the council's social media page or post.
• Boston Borough Council's social media accounts are not open to comments promoting or opposing any person campaigning for election to a political office.
• We will remove inflammatory, obscene or profane content and ban or block those who spread comments that are:
  • Abusive or threatening - including the use of swear words
  • Defamatory, misleading or false
  • Intimidating towards or unnecessarily naming a member of staff, elected member or other users.
  • Obscene, profane or sexually oriented
  • Promoting illegal activity
  • Discriminatory in any way
  • The same message posted multiple times, otherwise known as 'spamming'
  • Irrelevant and off topic, otherwise known as 'trolling'
  • promoting individual products or services

*content includes: comments, gifs, videos, images, attachments, links and emojis

Hate and harassment

Personal attacks and offensive or disparaging comments will not be tolerated.  Such comments that target or disparage any ethnic, racial, age, or religious group, gender, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, disability, pregnancy & maternity or married & civil partnership status are prohibited and may be reported.  Hate and harassment can take the form of criminal or non-criminal behaviour and can include offensive comments or images on social media or text messages.  We will remove or block any contributions or contributors who post hate-related messages on our accounts.

Action to be Taken

If your post contains swear words, it will automatically be hidden by an automated system.

If your content contains any of the above, we may hide or delete the post.

If you have posted inappropriate content, depending on the severity of the content, we may send you a warning via private message.  If you continue to post inappropriately, we will block your access to the page.

Depending on the content, we may also screenshot the posts and consider legal action or sending them on to the police for investigation.

Hours

Our social media pages are monitored between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday.

Questions and Concerns

If you do notice any offensive comments on our social media channels at any time, please send us a private message to let us know.

If you have an urgent query please see telephone 01205 314200.

This policy is subject to amendment or modification at any time.

We reserve the right to remove or block any contributions or contributors who break these rules and guidelines.

Complaints should be emailed to our complaints team.