DIGITAL SERVICE GUIDELINES
Hawkesbury City Council are committed to upholding and promoting the following principles of engagement:
1. Openness
We will ensure that we promote an open exchange of information between our Council, the media and the community.
2. Consistency
We will ensure consistency by all Councillors and staff when communicating with the media and the community.
3. Accuracy
The information we share with the media and the community will be a source of truth for our Council and community and we will prioritise the need to correct inaccuracies if they occur.
4. Respectful
We will at all times act professionally and respectfully towards media organisations and their representatives and our social media followers.
5. Timeliness
We will ensure that we respond to media and community enquiries in a timely manner. Council is committed to open and clear communication with the local community. Council is committed to actively engaging with the media to maximise reach and facilitate the efficient dissemination of relevant, accurate and timely information in accordance with Council’s Hawkesbury Community Strategic Plan 2022-2042. RESPONDING TO COMMENTS AND DIRECT MESSAGES
The Communications Team manages our social media pages during business hours (8:30am to 5pm) and responds to tweets, comments, and direct messages as quickly as possible. Service requests cannot be lodged through our social media pages as comments, and private messages through social media pages are not considered formal correspondence. If you wish to lodge a formal request, comment, enquiry, compliment or complaint, please contact us via email, phone or private message and we will liaise with the user about lodging a formal request. PRIVACY
We will not collect and record your personal details such as your user identity and email address through our social media pages. Please note Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Linkedin and Youtube's individual privacy policies. The Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 applies to the use of social media platforms by the Council and councillors. To mitigate potential privacy risks, council officials will advise people not to provide personal information on social media platforms, inform people if any personal information they may provide on social media platforms is to be used for official purposes, moderate comments to ensure they do not contain any personal information and advise people to contact the Council or councillors through alternative channels if they have personal information they do not want to disclose in a public forum. Third parties engaging on social media platforms must not post or share comments, photos, videos, electronic recordings or other information that:
- Is defamatory, offensive, humiliating, threatening or intimidating to Council officials or members of the public.
- Contains profane language or is sexual in nature.
- Constitutes harassment and/or bullying within the meaning of Council’s Code of Conduct or is unlawfully discriminatory.
- Contains content about Council, Council officials, staff or members of the public that is misleading or deceptive.
- Breaches the privacy of Council officials or members of the public.
- Contains allegations of suspected breaches of Council’s Code of Conduct or information about the consideration of a matter under Council’s Procedures for the Administration of the Code of Conduct.
- Violates an order made by a court.
- Breaches copyright.
- Advertises, endorses or solicits commercial products or business.
- Constitutes spam.
- Would be in breach of the rules of the social media platform.
2. REMOVAL OR HIDING OF CONTENT
If a person uploads content onto the social media platform that, in the reasonable opinion of the moderator, is of a kind specified as identified in the house rules, the moderator may remove or 'hide' that content.
3. BLOCKING OR BANNING
If a person uploads content that is removed or ‘hidden’ (refer to point 2 on this page), that person may also be blocked or banned from the social media platform/all social media platforms. DISCLAIMER
Hawkesbury City Council has made reasonable effort to ensure that the information contained on our digital services, including social media pages, is current and accurate at the time the page was created or last modified. Council makes no guarantee of any kind, and no legal contract between the Council and any person or entity is to be inferred from the use of or information on the Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook sites. Council gives no warranty and accepts no responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the information. No user should rely on the information, but instead should check for confirmation with the originating or authorising body. Council reserves the right at any time to make such changes as it deems appropriate to that information. Council has no responsibility for the accuracy of any content obtained from this medium and stored by a user in any form. Any links to external websites, apps and/or non Hawkesbury City Council information provided on Hawkesbury City Council's digital services, including social media pages, are provided as courtesy. They should not be construed as an endorsement by Hawkesbury City Council of the content or condition or views of the linked materials. Any advertisement that may appear when viewing our page is not endorsed by Hawkesbury City Council, nor are we directly affiliated with the advertisement unless stated otherwise. Council welcomes community participation on our social media accounts for genuine online engagement. The act of Hawkesbury City Council "liking" or "following" or "sharing information" from an organisation, business, group, individual person, location, app or event through social media platforms does not indicate that Hawkesbury City Council endorses the products, views, activities or services relating to the "liked" or "followed" or "shared" entity, business or group. FORMAL REQUEST AND COMPLAINTS
Please note that we are not able to reply to formal requests and complaints via the page – this is due to the requirement for us to adhere to the State Records Act. For all formal requests and complaints requiring a resolution of issues regarding Council services, facilities, staff or Councillors, please go to our website for a Complaint Form. It should also be noted that comments considered to be offensive or defamatory will be removed by the Administrator. Repeat offenders will be blocked. Here is the link to our Media Policy. https://hawkesbury.pulsesoftware.com/Pulse/Public.aspx?page=publicpolicies
