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Creating a safe online space — our "House Rules" for social media

We are committed to building open, transparent and active relationships with our community. Social media is an important tool in helping us to achieve this and as such, we are committed to ensuring that our social media pages are a place where everyone can safely express their views and opinions. To ensure this, we enforce a number of rules and standards by which we define what is unacceptable behaviour on our social media pages.

Inappropriate comments made toward others or toward Council will not be tolerated. This includes any communication that could be deemed as:

  • Abusive language
  • Harassment
  • Threats
  • Sexist, racist or derogatory language that is intended to cause concern or harm
  • Defamatory or libellous statements
  • Anything stated in contempt of court
  • Anything stated to break the law (hate crime) or to incite others to break the law
  • Spam
  • Inappropriate material or links to inappropriate content
  • Trolling or users who post misleading or false information about Council

We review all comments made on our social media pages and behaviour that is deemed to be a breach of our house rules (i.e comments that can be defined by the above as inappropriate) is noted by our staff.

We reserve the right to hide or delete any comment made on Council’s social media posts that are deemed to be a breach of our house rules or are unrelated to the topic of the post. No written correspondence will be made in this instance.

If a breach is deemed as serious or a user repeatedly violates the rules, they will receive a written warning. Following this, failure to cease inappropriate communications on Council’s pages will result in the user being blocked for a period of no less than 12 months. The blocked user can ask to be unblocked only after this 12-month period.

We encourage everyone to engage with us on social media and welcome a diversity of views and opinions that are expressed in a manner that is respectful towards others. We thank you for abiding by these rules and helping us to create a safe and productive online space.