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City of Jerome Social Media Use Policy I. INTRODUCTION A. This policy provides guidelines for the use, management, administration and oversight of City of Jerome owned social media for official use. It also provides guidelines for employees’ personal use of social media both at work and off-duty. B. Social media comes in many forms and include any method that facilitates electronic communications, including internet forums, blogs, online profiles, wikis, podcasts, pictures, video, email, instant messaging, music sharing, voice over IP, as well as social websites or online communities for business and personal use, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Yelp, YouTube, Google+, Flickr, Pinterest, Path, Picasa, Twitter, message Boards and chat rooms, among others. II. MEDIA ACCOUNT ACCESS A. Creation and use of social media forums on behalf of the City of Jerome are allowed when there is a clear public entity purpose. B. All City-authorized social media must only be created with a City of Jerome email account and shall be authorized by the Department Head and belong to the City. They are overseen and managed at the department level by authorized supervisors. C. Specific employees shall be authorized, in writing, to use the particular social media account on behalf of the City and department, and are the only individuals permitted to access, manage, publish, comment and/or post on behalf of the City and department on the media. These employees must conduct themselves at all times in accordance with all applicable City and department policies. D. All posts on City of Jerome social media must be in accordance with this policy and must be monitored by the department. Departments must be able to edit or remove content in violation of this policy. E. Authorized employees must not share personal information about him/herself, other City employees or citizens, with the exception of Police information related to criminal investigation, crime prevention, or public safety on the social media. ---PAGE BREAK--- F. Whenever possible, social media should link back to the official City of Jerome website for forms, documents, online services and other information for conducting business with the City of Jerome. G. Content on social media forums must abide by all applicable federal, state, and local laws, regulations and policies, including copyright, trademark and printed material laws. III. SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT A. Users of social media forums must be notified on the forum site that: 1. The intended purpose of the forum is to serve as a medium for communication between the City of Jerome and members of the public; 2. Submission of comments by members of the public constitutes participation in a limited public forum; 3. A comment posted by a member of the public is the opinion of the poster only; 4. Publication of the comment does not imply endorsement of, or agreement by, the City of Jerome; and 5. Comments do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the City of Jerome unless expressly stated by an authorized user. B. Comments on the City’s social media forums shall only be allowed when comments are consistent with the provisions of this policy. C. Posts and comments containing any of the following inappropriate forms of content are not allowed: 1. Comments not topically related to the particular post, thread, topic or article being commented upon; 2. Profane, obscene, sexual or violent language or content, or links to such; 3. Defamatory or personal attacks; 4. Threats of harm to any person or organization; 5. Content that promotes, fosters or perpetuates harassment or discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, citizenship, physical or mental disability, genetic information, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression or any other characteristic protected by law; ---PAGE BREAK--- 6. Solicitation of commerce, including but not limited to advertising for any business or product for sale; 7. Comments in support of or opposition to political campaigns, candidates or ballot measures of any kind; 8. Encouragement of illegal activity; 9. Conduct that violates any federal, state, or local law; 10. Information that may compromise the safety or security of the public or public systems; 11. Content that violates a legal ownership interest of any person or entity, such as trademark, patent or copyright; or 12. Confidential or proprietary information. 13. If activity listed in 4, 8, 9 or 10 occurs, employees must secure the information and notify the Jerome police department. D. Comments complying with these rules must be allowed to remain, regardless of whether they are favorable or unfavorable to the City of Jerome. E. The City may edit, restrict or remove, in whole or in part, any content that violates this policy or applicable law. Content that is edited or removed must be retained in accordance with the relevant records retention schedule. This content must be accompanied by a description of the reason it was edited or removed, the date and time of edit or removal, and the identity of the person posting the content, if available. F. The City of Jerome may deny access to City social media at any time and without prior notice to any person who violates these content guidelines. G. These content guidelines must be displayed on the social media site or made available by a link to the City’s official website.