City of Seattle Online Posted Content and Commentary Policy

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Purpose

A strong, healthy democracy requires that people can engage with their government and participate fully in civic discourse. People have many opportunities to interact with the City of Seattle online, and the City encourages posted content and commentary on our interactive digital platforms. The City's online services and sites are limited public forums and are moderated by City staff. This policy describes the terms and conditions under which posted content and commentary may be moderated.

Scope

This policy applies to all online services and sites hosted, managed, or administered by the City of Seattle. This includes social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, as well as blogs, websites, discussion forums, social media, and any sites that accepts posted content and commentary in the form of comments, links, replies, "likes," "follows," "retweets," etc.

Posted Content and Commentary

The following will not be tolerated when interacting with the City and/or people using City of Seattle social media, blogs, and other online forums:

  • Potentially libelous comments
  • Profane language or content
  • Content that promotes, fosters or perpetuates discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, age, religion, gender, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, national origin, physical or mental disability or sexual orientation
  • Obscene or racist comments
  • Sexual content or links to sexual content
  • Conduct or encouragement of illegal activity
  • Personal attacks, harassment, insults or threatening language
  • Comments not meaningfully related to the particular topic presented
  • Repetitive posts of the same material that disrupt normal operation of the forum
  • Hyperlinks to material not directly related to the discussion
  • Information that may compromise the safety or security of the public or public systems
  • Content that violates a legal ownership interest of any other party
  • Postings of, or requests for, other participants' personal information, such as phone number, address, financial accounts, etc.
  • Impersonation of someone else
  • Commercial messages, including advertisements and solicitations and spam
  • Support for or opposition to political campaigns or ballot measures

Posts, comments, replies, or any public commentary containing any of the above may be deleted. Multiple violations may result in the restriction of your ability to interact with the City of Seattle on social media, blogs, or other online forums.

We respect the privacy of your identity; however, persons making threats or using offensive language may be reported to the appropriate authorities.

All posted content and commentary are public records subject to public disclosure under the Public Records Act.

Links

The City of Seattle may select and post links to other sites. Postings made by the City on social media, blogs, or other sites do not indicate the City's endorsement of the ideas, issues, links, or commentary posted. Endorsement is also not implied via "following," "friending," "liking," or otherwise linking to other online entities.

Once a user follows a link to another page or site, the City's policies no longer apply, and the user become subject to the policies of that page or site. The City of Seattle's sites are intended specifically to share information about City programs, events and services. The City of Seattle is not responsible for the content that appears on these outside links and provides these links as a convenience only. Users should be aware that these external pages and sites and the information found on those pages and sites are not controlled by, provided by or endorsed by the City of Seattle. The City reserves the right to delete links posted by outside individuals that violate the City's Posts Policy at any time without notice.