The Hills Shire Council Social Media Platforms – House Rules
The key to maintaining Council’s social media pages as inviting spaces is to focus on intelligent discussion of the business of Council such as products, services and decisions using the following House Rules.
- Comments on posts can only relate to the business of Council and be about the information contained in the original post.
- If you post something that contains repetitive posts copied and pasted or duplicated by single or multiple users which is unrelated to the original topic (“off-topic”) then it may be removed. This also applies to queries or comments about moderation or censorship, which should not be posted as comments.
- Personal attacks (against authors or other users), naming people in a negative way, persistent trolling, spamming, smearing and mindless abuse will not be tolerated. This includes knowingly false or mischievous complaints or statements about individuals, companies, or the government.
- Any content that is defamatory or harassing of councillors, employees, volunteers, or the participants in our channels that may put Council in legal jeopardy, such as potentially libellous or defamatory postings, or material posted in potential breach of copyright will be deleted or hidden at Council discretion.
- Any content that a council moderator believes was intended to be offensive or threatening will be deleted. Please respect other people’s views and beliefs and consider your impact on others when making your contribution.
- Contributions that a council moderator views as discriminatory on the basis of race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, disability, age or any other basis outlined in the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 will not be tolerated.
- Any posts that are commercial contain advertising material or external links (cybersecurity risk) to other pages are not permitted.
- Requests for a formal review of a hidden or deleted post, or banning from any social media sites can be lodged with Council’s Public Officer in writing using the online form below.
- Concerns or complaints about the administration of a council’s social media platforms should be made to the council’s public officer in the first instance.
- Complaints about the conduct of council officials on social media platforms may be directed to the public officer.
- Complaints about a general manager’s conduct on social media platforms may be directed to the mayor.
- Unless an issue requires urgent moderation such as spam or defaming like comments, social media moderation will normally occur during business hours on Monday – Friday.
Use this form below to request a review of social media moderation as per Council's Social Media Policy.