Social Media Community Policy

Stratford District Council’s social media accounts aim to keep you up to date on the work we’re doing in the community.

You’re welcome to share your ideas and comments, but please remember to respect the rights, dignity and property of others. By engaging with us on our social media channels, you’re agreeing to follow the guidelines set out below:

Be kind and courteous

We love to hear from you and welcome questions, comments, opinions and constructive feedback. Please be respectful at all times – we won’t tolerate harassment, abuse or threats of any kind. Specifically, we will not tolerate:

• Abuse, harassment, stalking, threats or attacks
• Defamatory, offensive, obscene, violent or vulgar content
• Hateful language targeting race/ethnicity, age, colour, creed, religion, gender, sexual preference or orientation, nationality or political beliefs
• Sexually explicit or pornographic material
• Fraudulent, deceptive, misleading or unlawful behaviour
• References to criminal or illegal activity
• Violations of any intellectual property rights
• Spamming in nature
• Viruses or programs that could damage the operation of other people’s computers
• Commercial solicitations or solicitation of donations

Social networks are public

Our Facebook page is a public page where anyone can participate. We cannot be responsible for views expressed other than our own.

Protect personal information

DO NOT post personal information. Stratford District Council may remove any reference to the identity of a participant or any other person from the social media channel, if the disclosed information could be used to identify or locate a person, or that could otherwise be deemed to constitute an invasion of privacy.

Stay on topic

Your comments should be related to the topic of the post. We reserve the right to delete off-topic comments.

Make sure it’s yours

Only post content if you have the proper permission from its rightful owners. Copyrighted and trademarked material and other intellectual property will be removed.

License to use your content

By posting and commenting on the Stratford District Councils social media pages, you grant us the right to freely use or reproduce your content.

Breach of guidelines

We reserve the right to remove any comments or content that doesn’t adhere to these guidelines or with any other applicable Terms and Conditions, rules, or laws. We reserve the right to hide or delete comments made on our channels, as well as ban users who do not follow these guidelines. We also reserve the right to send any comments to law enforcement authorities for investigation as we feel necessary or is required by law.

Third-party websites

Stratford District Council is not responsible for and does not endorse third-party websites or content that may be linked to from our social networking websites. Review the privacy and security practices, and policies of all third-party websites that you visit.

Disclaimer

Stratford District Council reserves the right to change, remove, or deny access to the content on our pages and is not responsible for any consequences you may experience as a result.

Contact us

If you find content on this page which you believe breaches these guidelines please let us know by emailing communications@stratford.govt.nz