Social Media Policy

PURPOSE

Because many of our citizens and other stakeholders utilize social media for news and communications, the City of Pompano Beach has developed its own social media accounts, which help us inform the public about our resources, services and events. We rely on our own free speech rights to communicate our selected messages. Comments left on our social media sites reflect the views of the commenters, not the views of the City of Pompano Beach.

The City of Pompano Beach is committed to fully complying with the freedom of speech clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and other similar legal obligations surrounding free speech. Since we follow the law, there may be times when comments left by the public that some people perceive to be offensive will remain visible on our social media posts, if such comments are legally protected speech.

The City of Pompano Beach has an important interest in assuring the accuracy and consistency of information associated with our social media sites. These terms and conditions establish guidelines for the public’s use of our social media sites in a way that balances these values.

DEFINITIONS

1. “Social media” means digital content created by us and communicated on platforms that allow sharing, commenting, and engagement by the public. Examples of social media accounts we may use are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
2. “Comments” include any digital content, information, links, images, videos, or any other form of communicative content posted in reply or response to a social media account post posted by us on one of our social media sites.
3. “User” means a member of the public who views or interacts with one or more of our social media accounts.

EXPECTATIONS

1. The leaders of the City of Pompano Beach believe that honest, civil, and productive discussions provide the best environment for citizens and other stakeholders to understand the work of their government.
2. We ask commenters to consider that our social media feeds may be viewed by children and other impressionable people. Please avoid profanity, slurs, personal attacks, bullying, or use of false information.

ACCOUNTABILITY

The City of Pompano Beach commits to regularly train its applicable employees on this policy and relevant freedom of speech caselaw and also commits to hold employees accountable if they violate said policy or law.

GENERAL GUIDELINES

1. These terms and conditions apply to all our social media sites. Where possible, a link to these terms and conditions will be made available as a hyperlink or posted as text on our social media accounts.
2. Users should know that social media posts we make, comments and replies to those posts, and any direct or private messages sent to us are subject to public records retention and potential release.
3. Our social media accounts are not monitored 24/7 and no one should utilize our social media accounts to seek emergency services.
4. We do not guarantee we will respond to comments or messages sent on our social media accounts.

CONTENT MODERATION

1. Limited Public Forum. Our social media accounts are created and maintained as limited public forums under the caselaw pertaining to the freedom of speech clause of the First Amendment to the U.S Constitution. We invite members of the public to view and, where possible and permitted, provide comments or other engagement on our social media posts. However, the law permits us to hide and/or delete comments that are not protected speech under the First Amendment and relevant caselaw.
2. Prohibited Content. As indicated above, we may hide or delete:
   1. Comments expressly advocating direct violence or other illegal activity;
   2. Comments containing or linking to obscenity, which is defined as sexually explicit and/or pornographic content that is patently offensive, appeals to prurient interest, and lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value;
   3. Comments that expressly encourage or advocate illegal discrimination based on race, age, religion, gender, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any other legally protected class;
   4. Comments containing links to malware and/or malicious content that affects the normal functioning of a computer system, server, or browser;
   5. Comments containing actual defamation against a specifically named person or organization, either as determined by a court or comments that are patently defamatory by easily discovered facts;
   6. Comments that contain images or other content that violate the intellectual property or copyright rights of someone else, if the owner of that property notifies us that the property was posted in a comment on our social media account;
   7. Comments that contain a hyperlink to any website other than those managed by the City of Pompano Beach. This will be done without regard to the viewpoint of the comment containing such a link or the content of the site to which the link redirects.
3. Retention. When a comment containing any of the above content is posted to our social media account, an electronic record of that content will be archived pursuant to our records retention policy. Once documented, the content will be removed, where possible, from our social media account.
4. Blocking a User. A warning will be issued to a user in violation of the above prohibited content. Upon the second offense, we will notify and then block the user from the social media account where the violations occurred.