Borough of Charleroi, PA Chapter 88 Social Media Policy

[HISTORY: Adopted by the Borough Council of the Borough of Charleroi 12-14-2017. Amendments noted where applicable.]

§ 88-1 Purpose.

A. This policy sets forth guidelines for the establishment and use by the Borough of Charleroi (hereinafter referred to as "the Borough") of all social media sites including, but not limited to, the Borough's official website, Facebook as a means of conveying Borough-related information to its residents, employees, business owners, vendors and visitors.

B. The Borough has an overriding interest and expectation in deciding what is placed on behalf of the Borough on all of its social media sites.

C. For purposes of this policy "social media" is understood to be content created by individuals using accessible publishing technologies through and on the internet. Examples of social media include websites, Facebook, blogs, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn. For purposes of this policy, "comments" include written comments, information, articles, pictures, photos, videos and other images.

§ 88-2 Scope.

This policy shall apply to all full- and part-time employees, elected and appointed officials of the Borough and nongovernmental Borough representatives and agents who are permitted to post on the Borough social media sites.

§ 88-3 General policy.

A. The establishment and use by any governmental department of the Borough's social media sites are subject to approval by the Borough Secretary or his or her designees. All Charleroi Borough social media sites shall be administered by the Borough's Secretary or his or her designated third-party provider.

B. The Borough social media sites should be clear that they are maintained by the Borough and that they follow and must adhere to this Social Media Policy.

C. Wherever possible, all Borough social media sites should link back to the official Charleroi Borough website for forms, documents, online services and other information necessary to conduct business with the Borough.

D. The Borough Council shall designate an employee or volunteer to monitor content (the "Social Media Coordinator") on all of the Borough social media sites to ensure adherence to both this Social Media Policy and to maintain the interests and goals of the Borough. The Borough has the right and will restrict or remove any content that is deemed in violation of this Social Media Policy or any applicable law. Any content removed based on these guidelines will be retained by the Borough Secretary or the Social Media Coordinator pursuant to the Borough retention policy, including the time, date and identity of the poster, when available.

E. These guidelines must be displayed to users or made available by hyperlink.

F. The Borough will approach the use of social media tools as consistently as possible.

G. The Borough website will remain the Borough's primary internet presence.

H. The Borough social media sites and this policy are subject to all federal and Pennsylvania laws and regulations, including Pennsylvania's Right to Know law[1], as well as applicable record retention requirements.

[1] Editor's Note: See 65 P.S. § 67-101 et seq.

I. Any content maintained in a social media format that is related to the Borough's business, including a list of subscribers, posted communication and communication submitted for posting, may be a public record subject to public disclosure.

J. All employees representing the Borough via any of its social media sites must conduct themselves at all times as a representative of the Borough and in accordance with all its policies.

K. This Social Media Policy may be revised at any time.

§ 88-4 Comment policy.

A. As a public entity, the Borough must abide by certain standards to serve all of its constituents in a civil and unbiased manner.

B. The intended purpose behind establishing the Borough social media sites is to disseminate information about Charleroi from the Borough to its residents, business owners, vendors, employees and visitors.

C. Comments containing any of the following inappropriate forms of content shall not be permitted on the Borough social media sites and are subject to removal and/or restriction by the Social Media Coordinator or his or her designee.

(1) Comments not related to the original topic, including random and unintelligible comments;

(2) Profane, obscene, violent, or pornographic content and/or language or sexually suggestive or links to such materials. Any image or link containing minor or suspected minor in sexual situations will be reported to law enforcement;

(3) Content that promotes, fosters or perpetuates discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, age, religion, gender, national origin, marital status, status in regard to public assistance, physical or mental disability or sexual orientation;

(4) Defamatory or personal attacks;

(5) Threats to any person or organization;

(6) Comments in support of, or in opposition to, any political campaign or ballot measure;

(7) Any solicitation of commerce, including, but not limited to, advertising of any business or products for sale;

(8) Conduct in violation of any federal, state or local law;

(9) Encouragement of illegal activity;

(10) Information that may tend to compromise the safety or security of the public or public systems; or

(11) Content that violates a legal ownership interest, such as a copyright, copyright infringing activities and or infringement of intellectual property rights;

(12) Private contact information such as names, addresses and phone numbers, regardless of whether they may be obtained elsewhere;

(13) Photographs, pictures or videos other than those posted by the Borough;

(14) Personal information of a person other than the poster;

(15) Spamming or repetitive content;

(16) Comments from children under the age of 13 years cannot be posted in order to comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.[1] By posting on any of the Borough's media sites, users hereby acknowledge that they are at least 13 years of age.

[1] Editor's Note: See 15 U.S.C.A. § 6501 et seq.

D. A comment posted by a member of the public on any Borough social media site is the opinion of the commentator or poster only, and publication of a comment does not imply endorsement of, or agreement by, the Borough, nor do such comments necessarily reflect the opinions of policies of the Borough.

E. Any attempt to hack or otherwise compromise the Borough's internet or social media sites will be reported to law enforcement and the perpetrator will be denied access to all Borough social media sites.

F. The Borough reserves the right to deny access to its social media sites for any individual who violates the Charleroi Borough Social Media Policy, at any time and without prior notice.

G. All Borough departments, commissions and boards shall monitor their respective social media sites, if any, for comments requesting responses from the Borough and for comments in violation of this policy.

H. When any Borough employee, official or volunteer responds to a comment in his or her capacity as a Borough employee, official or volunteer, the employee, official or volunteer's name and title should be made available and the employee or volunteer shall not share personal information about himself or herself or other Borough employees, officials or volunteers.

I. All comments posted to any the Borough's Facebook site are bound by any applicable terms and conditions as set forth by Facebook. All Borough policies are applicable to interactions on social media sites when acting in an official capacity and representing the Borough.

J. No friending or other special relationships between any Borough employee or volunteer and a third person is permitted.

K. Social media sites are not to be used for making official communications to the Borough, for example: reporting of crimes or misconduct, reporting dangerous conditions, giving notice required by any statute, ordinance or regulation (i.e., notice of claim).

§ 88-5 Elected officials.

A. Elected officials may not use their own personal social media pages or sites to conduct official business of the Borough.

B. Elected officials who use social media for campaigning must establish separate social media accounts for the purpose.

C. Elected officials shall refrain from conducting Borough-related discussions on social media with other Borough elected officials for risk of having a quorum that subjects the elected officials to the requirements of Pennsylvania open meeting laws.

D. Any federal, state or local political candidate who has announced that they are running for election or re-election to any elected office may not post on any of the Borough's social media sites. This shall include all posts that appear to be or are under the guise of being public service announcements. It is the hereby the policy of the Borough to maintain all of the Borough's social media sites as neutral and nonpolitical.

§ 88-6 Breach of Policy.

A. Breach of this policy by any Borough employee may result in disciplinary action up to and including dismissal. Any evidence of such occurrence shall be immediately referred to the Borough Secretary and to the Council President for review and prompt corrective action by the entire Council, if confirmed.

B. Disciplinary action may be taken by Borough Council regardless of whether or not the breach was committed during work hours and regardless of whether the Borough equipment or facilities were used in committing the breach of this policy.

C. Any employee suspected of committing a breach of this policy is expected to cooperate with the Borough's investigation, which may include disclosing relevant passwords, logins and answers to security questions.

D. Employees may be required to remove internet postings which are deemed to constitute a breach of policy as determined by the Social Media Coordinator, subject to applicable archiving and retention requirements.

§ 88-7 Ownership.

Any social media site created by any Borough employee, elected, appointed official or volunteer remains the property of the Borough, including all the followers and friends who have been generated by the social media site. If the person or persons who created the sites leave the employment of the Borough or are no longer volunteering for the Borough, they must relinquish everything related to the social media sites, including user names, passwords and logins.