Social Media Usage Guidelines

Purpose

Because many of our students, faculty, staff, community partners, and other stakeholders utilize social media for news and communications, we have created our own social media accounts, which help us inform the public about our work and mission. 

We have an important interest in assuring the accuracy and consistency of information associated with our social media accounts. We also respect the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the rights outlined in our state constitution, and the right to freedom of speech. These usage guidelines establish guidelines for the public’s use of our social media accounts that balance all these values. 

Definitions 

 

General Guidelines 

  1. These usage guidelines apply to all our social media accounts. Where possible, a link to these usage guidelines will be made available as a hyperlink or posted as text somewhere on our social media accounts.                                                                   
  2. All social media posts, comments, direct or private messages sent to us, and list of followers are subject to public disclosure under chapter 42.56 RCW.
  3. Our social media accounts are not monitored 24/7 and no one should utilize our social media accounts to seek emergency services. Anyone in need of emergency help should call 9-1-1.                                                                                            
  4. We do not guarantee we will respond to comments or messages sent on our social media accounts. 

Expectations 

We feel that honest, civil, and productive discussions provide the best way to create an environment where our community members feel welcomed, supported, represented, included, and a sense of belonging. That’s why we ask users to avoid personal attack, profanity, bullying, or use of incorrect information.We acknowledge that protected free speech may include many forms of intolerant and hateful speech, including that which occurs during such common college activities such as debates, discussion, and distribution of posters and memes. Users may use their personal block feature as needed to protect their own wellbeing.

Content Moderation 

  1. Limited Public Forum. Our social media accounts are created and maintained as limited public forums under federal caselaw pertaining to the First Amendment to the U.S Constitution. We invite members of the public to view and, where possible, provide comments or other engagement on our social media accounts. However, we may hide and/or delete comments that  do not follow our guidelines. We will not hide or delete comments solely because such comments are critical of our organization, its officials, its members, or its employees.                                                              
  2. Prohibited Content. The following comments may be hidden or deleted:
    1. Comments directly advocating violence or illegal activity.
    2. Comments containing direct criminal threats as defined by local, state, or federal law.
    3. Comments containing obscenity, which is defined as sexually explicit and/or pornographic content that is patently offensive, appeals to prurient interest, and lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
    4. Comments that directly promote or advocate for our organization to illegally discriminate based on race, age, religion, gender, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any other legally protected class if such comments violate local, state, or federal law.
    5. Duplicate comments posted repeatedly within a short period of time.
    6. Comments containing actual defamation against a person, either as determined by a court or comments that are patently defamatory by easily discovered facts. When a public figure is the target, the poster must act with actual malice for the comment to be defamatory.
    7. Comments that contain images or other content that violate the intellectual property or copyright rights of someone else, if the owner of that property notifies us that the property was included in a comment on our social media account(s).
    8. Comments containing links to malware and/or malicious content that affects the normal functioning of a computer system, server, app, or browser.
    9. Comments that contain a hyperlink to any website other than those we control. This will be done without regard to the viewpoint of the comment containing such a link or the content of the site to which the link redirects.
    10. Commercial promotions including advertisements, solicitations, and spam.

  3. Retention. When a comment containing any of the above content is posted to one of our social media accounts and we proceed to hide or delete the comment, a copy or electronic record of that content may be retained pursuant to our records retention policy, along with a brief description of the reason the specific content was hidden or deleted.

  4. Right of Appeal. If we hide or delete a user comment pursuant to these usage guidelines, that user has the right to appeal that decision by sending an email or letter to communications@clark.edu within five business days of our action.If the appeal is successful, the comment may (if possible) be restored for public view, or the user may be permitted to repost the comment. Upon a determination that the comment violated these guidelines, the user will be notified that the appeal was denied. The return correspondence, sent within a reasonable amount of time, will provide the user with a brief explanation for the action taken.

  5. Locking Post Comments. We may lock comments on posts related to emergency notifications or other urgent situations to prevent misinformation distracting from vital updates.

  6. Accounts of Government Officials. If we determine that a social media account maintained in the name of one of our government officials is a government account, such accounts will be maintained consistent with this policy.