Social Media and Comments Policy

 
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Second Congressional District Democratic Party

Social Media Policy

 
 

Purpose

The Second Congressional District Democratic Party also branded as Nc2Dems (“Party”) has an overriding interest and expectation in deciding what is “spoken” on behalf of the Party through the use of Social Media sites (including but not limited to Facebook and Twitter). This Social Media Policy establishes guidelines for the establishment and use of Social Media by the Party as means of conveying information about the Party and its events and activities to its residents.

The intended purpose behind establishing Second Congressional District Democratic Party sites is to disseminate information from the Party, about the Party, to the people of the Second Congressional District.

Nothing in this policy shall be applied to prohibit or infringe upon any communication, speech or expression that is protected or privileged under law. This includes speech and expression protected under state or federal constitutions as well as labor laws or other applicable laws.

General Policy

  1. Party Social Media sites should make clear that they are maintained by the Second Congressional District Democratic Party and that they follow the Party’s Social Media Policy.

  2. Wherever possible, Party Social Media sites should link back to the official Second Congressional District Democratic Party website for forms, documents, online services, and other information necessary to conduct business with the Second Congressional District Democratic Party.

  3. It is the responsibility of the 3rd Vice Chair of the Second Congressional District Democratic Party to monitor content on Party Social Media sites to ensure adherence to both the Party’s Social Media Policy and the interest and goals of the Second Congressional District Democratic Party.

  4. The Party reserves the right to restrict or remove any content that is deemed in violation of this Social Media Policy or any applicable law. Any content removed based on these guidelines must be retained by the 3rd Vice Chair of the Second Congressional District Democratic Party for a reasonable period of time, including the time, date and identity of the poster.

  5. These guidelines must be presented to and signed off by any volunteer prior to having access and posting privilege to the Party’s social media accounts.

  6. The Party will approach the use of Social Media tools as consistently as possible.

  7. The Second Congressional District Democratic Party’s website at https://www.nc2dems.org will remain the Party’s primary and predominant Internet presence.

  8. All Party Social Media sites shall adhere to applicable Democratic National Committee and North Carolina Democratic Party guidelines.

  9. Comments on topics or issues not within the jurisdictional purview of the Second Congressional District Democratic Party may be removed.

  10. Employees and volunteers representing the Party government via Party Social Media sites must conduct themselves at all times as a representative of the Party and in accordance with all Party policies.

  11. This Social Media Policy may be revised at any time.

Comment Policy

  1. As a public entity the Party must abide by certain standards to serve all its constituents in a civil and unbiased manner.

  2. Comments or content containing any of the following inappropriate forms of content shall not be permitted and are subject to removal and/or restriction by the Party:

    1. Comments not related to the business of the Party or not relevant to the original topic;

    2. Violent, profane, obscene or pornographic content and/or language;

    3. Content that promotes, fosters or perpetuates discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, age, religion, sexual orientation, gender, or national origin;

    4. Content that threatens or defames any person or organization;

    5. Content that is hateful or incites violence;

    6. Solicitation of commerce, including but not limited to, advertising of any non-government related event, or business or product for sale;

    7. Conduct in violation of any federal, state or local law;

    8. Encouragement of any illegal activity;

    9. Information that may tend to compromise the safety or security of the public or public systems

    10. Content that violates a legal ownership interest, such as a copyright, of any party


  3. A comment posted by a member of the public on any Second Congressional District Democratic Party Social Media site is the opinion of the commentator or poster only, and publication of a comment does not imply endorsement of, or agreement by, the Second Congressional District Democratic Party, nor do such comments necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the Second Congressional District Democratic Party.

  4. The Second Congressional District Democratic Party reserves the right to deny access to Second Congressional District Democratic Party Social Media sites for any individual, who violates the Second Congressional District Democratic Party’s Social Media Policy, at any time and without prior notice.

  5. The 3rd Vice Chair of the Second Congressional District Democratic Party shall monitor the Party Social Media Sites for comments requesting responses from the Party and for comments in violation of this policy.

  6. When a Second Congressional District Democratic Party employee, executive board member or volunteer responds to a comment, in his/her capacity as a Second Congressional District Democratic Party employee, or executive board member, the employee’s name and title should be made available, and the employee shall not share personal information about himself or herself, or other Party employees.

  7. All comments posted to any Second Congressional District Democratic Party Facebook sites are bound by Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, located at http://www.facebook.com/terms.php, and the Second Congressional District Democratic Party reserves the right to report any violation of Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities to Facebook with the intent of Facebook taking appropriate and reasonable responsive action.

  8. All comments posted to any Second Congressional District Democratic Party Twitter sites are bound by Twitter’s Terms of Service, located at https://twitter.com/tos, and the Second Congressional District Democratic Party reserves the right to report any violation of Twitter’s Terms of Service to Facebook with the intent of Twitter taking appropriate and reasonable responsive action.

Reporting/Removal of Unauthorized Comments

The Party requires that volunteers with access to the Party’s social media pages immediately notify the 3rd Vice Chair of the Second Congressional District Democratic Party if there is any posted material that may be inappropriate, that violates this Policy, or any Party policy, is illegal, or that potentially infringes the copyrights or other rights of any persons. The 3rd Vice Chair of the Second Congressional District Democratic Party will investigate and respond to all reports of potential violations of this Policy.

Any content removed based on these guidelines must be retained by the 3rd Vice Chair for a reasonable period of time, including the time, date and identity of the poster, when available. Upon removal of content, the 3rd Vice Chair shall notify the commenter that their response has been deemed inappropriate and removed due to inconsistency with the Party’s content requirements.

The Party reserves the right, at any time and without prior notice, to deny access to the Social Media site to any individual who violates this Policy.

Proposed 8/11/2019

Adopted 9/21/2019