Our standards for conduct on social media
The Council has a number of social media profiles. Most social networks and microblogs have their own rules and guidelines, which we will always follow. We reserve the right to remove any contributions that break these rules.
Be civil, tasteful and relevant.
Do not post messages that are unlawful, libellous, harassing, defamatory, abusive, threatening, harmful, obscene, profane, sexually oriented or racially offensive.
Do not swear.
Do not post content copied from elsewhere, for which you do not own the copyright.
Do not post the same message, or very similar messages, more than once, also called "spamming".
Do not publicise your, or anyone else's, personal information, such as contact details.
Do not advertise products or services.
Do not impersonate someone else.
Pre鈥恊lection period
The Council itself, as opposed to its political administration, must be politically neutral in its communications. Therefore, please do not use any of our pages to promote party political messages or other content.
Complaints
If you have a concern about something posted on a page that the Council is responsible for, you should contact us.
Council approach to connections on social media
There is no fixed approach on who the Council will have in its network, but as a guide, the connections may include the profiles of the following
- Edinburgh councillors or any other politician commenting on matters of interest
- public, private and voluntary sector partner organisations
- community organisations and campaigning groups
- media and journalists
- any other commentators or opinion formers that the Council may want to follow.
Endorsement
The Council does not endorse any individual or organisation merely by virtue of creating a social media connection, regardless of the terms used by social media providers such as 'follow' or 'like'.
Removal
Once connected, the Council will not remove a profile from its network unless there is some over鈥恟iding reason to do so; for example, because it poses a significant and material risk to the Council's reputation and credibility.
Contacting us via social media
Our responses to replies, comments and direct messages depend on the individual service. Even if we do not reply, we are listening and will act on or pass on your comments as appropriate. In most cases, it will be better to contact the service directly.
Our social media platforms are not intended to be used by the media or politicians to contact us. You should contact our media team directly.
Media contacts
If you are a journalist please go to our media contacts page.