How we monitor and moderate our social media page
As part of our commitment to creating a safe and inclusive online space for our community, we have implemented Rules of Engagement for our Facebook page.
Meta is making changes to how it moderates comments and content on Facebook. In response, we are taking proactive steps to ensure this page remains a positive environment for sharing updates, engaging with the community, and encouraging respectful discussions.
These rules will:
- Promote respectful and constructive communication.
- Protect our staff, representatives, and community from harmful behaviour.
- Ensure safe and inclusive online interactions for everyone.
Rules of Engagement
The Tararua District Council Facebook page is monitored regularly by a small and busy communications team.
During standard office hours, Facebook posts are made to share updates on Council services and activities; share third party posts of benefit to our community; and to promote community wellbeing.
We respect the community’s right to express their opinions and thoughts and encourage interaction with our content, however, comments must always be polite, appropriate and relevant. We will not tolerate any comments or engagements, including images, that break Facebook Community Standards and our Rules of Engagement, which includes NO:
- violent, obscene, profane, hateful, suggestive or racist posts, links or images
- comments that threaten or defame any person or organisation
- unreasonable off-topic comments by a single user
- repetitive comments by single or multiple users (spam)
- publicising personal information or contact details
- comments made by any individual specifically relating to their own, or someone else's, nomination, intention to run for Council or election campaign, will be removed
- anything else that Council officers deem to be misinformation or unreasonably inappropriate.
The guidelines apply to people who follow our social media and people who do not follow but who have received a sponsored post on their own social media page. Anyone who objects to seeing a sponsored post on Facebook can choose to ‘hide all ads’ (see how to do this in the links below).
If a comment or content does not comply with these rules, it may be removed. If this happens, our team will reach out and let you know what has been removed and why and we will make a record of this. If you repeatedly ignore the rules of engagement and our attempts to reach out, this could result in being temporarily blocked from this page.
For service requests, please call 06 374 4080 or 06 376 0110 (including out of hours). Facebook Messenger is not the fastest route to resolution as it is monitored only during business hours.
How we moderate social media conversations
We reserve the right to:
- Determine what constitutes inappropriate content (posts)
- Determine whether a post breaches our Rules of Engagement and hide or remove inappropriate posts
- Hide or remove posts that could be detrimental to public health, eg anti-immunisation information
- Hide or remove posts that attempt to undermine or turn people against official public health advice, eg COVID-19 Alert Level rules and guidance
- Temporarily block users who continue to disregard our Rules of Engagement, OR, ask you to find and use an alternative channel to share information and views that are important to you but that we deem to be unreasonably inappropriate for our social media channels.
How we respond to questions and requests via social media
We will try to respond to comments and messages in 48 hours or less. There may be a delay on weekends and public holidays. We will respond to most questions. We may not, however, respond to questions that are an attempt to share and promote misinformation, in the form of a quesion.
How we respond to feedback via social media
It’s good to hear if we get things right – and we need to know if we can do things better. We welcome your feedback to help us understand customer experiences and improve the way we work.
Our Facebook pages and social media communities are not formal complaints channels. To make a complaint, please see our Complaints and Compliments page on our website:
How to make a formal compliment or complaint
Disclaimer
We may post links to third-party sites on our social media pages. We are not responsible for the content on those sites.