Social media house rules

These accounts are solely managed by council officers in the Communications Team, in line with the Council’s Social Media Policy and Guide.

We're here to help and we expect users to offer us the same level of courtesy that we offer them. We want our social media channels to be safe spaces and a place for healthy, open and insightful discussion and sharing of relevant information, which is why we have a short set of house rules. 

Responding to people’s comments or queries

We welcome positive engagement on the content we are publishing. If residents want to express their opinions on council services or council information we publish on social media, they are welcome to do so.

We try to respond to genuine questions on our social media profiles that are related to council business, but as council officers we do not (and cannot) get involved in political debate or respond to political questions, which should be directed to councillors. We will not tolerate or respond to abusive messages.

Where possible, we advise residents with customer service enquiries to approach our customer service team – call, email, or tweet @RBWMsupport for support – as officers looking after those channels have full access to customer accounts and details.

Sometimes the volume of questions on the same topic means that we will decide to not reply to residents individually on social media but will use their questions to help us create informative posts that will provide the answers to popular questions. 

Deleting comments and blocking users

We would not remove or block comments unless they are expressed in a manner that is unpolite, offensive, discriminatory, or considered by the Communications Team to be inappropriate content. There are certain circumstances under which we may choose to ignore, delete, hide, or block comments and users.

These are:

• When comments may cause distress to other residents following the page or to page moderators, we have the right to remove or hide the comments.
• If the user, without authorisation, is copying brand identity, using similar photographs, or copying, amending, or otherwise doctoring branded council graphics, which could potentially lead to public confusion around what is a genuine council publication or communication, the user would be blocked or banned. If appropriate, the account may be reported to the relevant social media platform.
• If content would expose the council to legal risk, particularly with respect to defamation, contempt of court or copyright.
• Where a user (or users) abuses council channels by “spamming” activity. i.e. replying or commenting on several council posts with an identical (or near identical) reply or comment that is essentially unrelated to the topic of the council posts.
• We reserve the right to not respond to offensive or distressing comments, to block/ban the user or report to the social media platform. 
• If the Communications Team decide to block a user on social media, they will put that ban in place and then review after six months.