Social Media Policy

This Social Media Policy ("Policy") establishes the policy and practices addressing the use of social media for official Monroe County ("'County") business by elected officials, employees, and officers and offers policy information for the public's use of social media for County business. For purposes of this Policy, "'Social Media" means and includes websites and applications that enable users to create, post, convey, or otherwise share information, ideas, messages. text, images, GIFs, pictures, audio, videos, or other content (collectively "Content") which includes but is not limited to Facebook Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, Flickr, Nextdoor. and YouTube. This Policy shall govern and supersede all previous policies and practices on the subject of the County's use of Social Media. Any questions regarding this Policy or its application should be directed to the County's Public Information Officer. 

The County's Public Information Officer is designated to create, maintain, and monitor the County's Social Media. The Public Information Officer shall provide access information to the County Administrator and will regularly monitor the Social Media accounts for compliance with this policy. 

The purpose of the County's use of Social Media is to increase and promote public awareness and maintain open and professional communications amongst the County and the public. 

The County's intent in the use of Social Media is not to create a public forum, but instead to provide a means to disseminate County information to educate and inform the public through the effective and inexpensive communication tools of Social Media in compliance with applicable open meetings ("Sunshine Law'") and Public Records Laws. 

Social Media may contain threaded discussions, chat rooms, listservs, and other communication forums. These limited public forums are provided to allow members of the public to share ideas and information pertaining to certain issues affecting the County. While the County encourages users to interact through these limited public forums on the specific issues presented, the County expects members to affirm that they will interact in an appropriate manner as set forth below. The County does not agree with or endorse every comment that users may post, at their own risk, on any of its websites. 

The following is Prohibited Content and may be, but is not obligated to be, removed, hidden. archived. or edited by the County: 

  • Content that is obscene, vulgar, or explicit including masked words (***), acronyms and abbreviations, or are abusive, threatening, hateful, or intended to defame any person, business, organization or governmental agency.
  • Content intended to intimidate, humiliate, threaten, or assault others.
  • Content that promotes, fosters, or perpetuates discrimination of any kind.
  • Content that is clearly off-topic, disruptive, random, or unintelligible.
  • Content that is fraudulent or deceptive and intended to mislead.
  • Content that is intended to compromise the safety or security of the public or public systems.
  • Spam, advertising, solicitations or includes links to other sites.
  • Content that promotes products, non-county services, political organizations, or campaigns.
  • Content that violates or appears to violate a legal ownership interest of any person or entity, including (but not limited to) matters or items that are or may be subject to copyright, patent or trademark protection.
  • Illegal conduct or encouragement of illegal activity.
  • Hyperlinks to third-party websites, except as the County deems appropriate in accordance with the Social Media Policy.
  • Content that violates any policies of Monroe County.

The use of certain communication forums may be for a particular timeframe. Once the particular discussion is deemed closed by the County, the forum may be closed and archived. 

The County strives to post accurate and relevant Content, but does not guarantee the accuracy of any information posted on its Social Media and assumes no liability for damages resulting from any inaccuracies. The County does not guarantee that its Social Media will be uninterrupted, permanent, or error-free. The County reserves the right to discontinue Social Media at any time.