Our social media house rules

We have a number of social media accounts we use to share information about our services and venues, as well as information from partner organisations.

We want to keep you informed and provide you with accurate information about services and events across North Somerset.

We will try and help you in any way we can. We also expect social media users to offer us the same level of courtesy and manners which we offer them. Please always remember that the people monitoring our social media are human beings too.

We ask that you report any service requests through our website so that the information goes directly to the relevant team or service for them to action.

When we refer to a consultation, we’ll provide a link so you can have your say – therefore individual comments may not be acknowledged.

If we post information about any planning applications and you wish to object, you’ll need to make a formal objection through our website. Any comments or objections will not be accepted through our social media pages.

We want our social media channels to be safe spaces where people can share ideas and have open, useful and healthy discussions.

To help this, we’ve got some social media house rules which we expect all social media users who are interacting with our accounts to follow:

  • all users must follow the terms of use of that social media platform as well as our own house rules
  • we will remove in part or completely posts and comments we consider to be inappropriate or discriminatory against any individual or group
  • you are wholly responsible to any content you post including content you share
  • we reserve the right to remove content and report and/or block users on our social media channels who post messages we consider to be:
    • disruptive, abusive, obscene or inflammatory
    • personal attacks
    • deceptive or misleading
    • hate speech – there’s no place for hate in North Somerset and such content may be reported to the police for further action if necessary
    • in violation of any intellectual property rights, including copyright
    • in violation of any law or regulation
    • spam and off-topic content (persistent negative and/or abusive posts which aim to provoke a response)
    • commercial or endorsing a particular product or service
    • publicising anyone’s contact details or other personal information

We will not tolerate abusive comments, posts and messages. We will block and/or report anyone who repeatedly engages with us using content or language which falls into the above categories.

We must be politically neutral on social media which means we are unable to endorse or engage with any content of a party political nature. If you want to discuss political issues please contact your local councillor.

If you believe you have been unfairly treated on our social media accounts, you can report this to us through our complaints procedure.