Social Media Public Comment Policy

Social Media includes all forms of electronic communication, such as social networking websites, blogs, and applications through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, opinions, personal messages, and other content such as text, photos, videos, and audio.

Public Comment Policy

To the extent public comments are enabled on a Pike County government social media site, all members of the public will be allowed to comment and public comments shall not thereafter be blocked, filtered, deleted, or otherwise censored, except as provided below or allowed by law. Any comments on the County's social media sites are the opinion of the poster only and the presence of such comments does not imply that the County endorses or agrees with the comments.

Social media is not an official channel for contacting the County of Pike agencies, employees and officials. While the County may at times respond to inquiries or comments on social media, staffing for that purpose is not 24/7. The County encourages users to utilize the official county website at www.pikepa.org to learn how to officially contact government offices.

Communications posted on the county's social media pages will not be construed as satisfying requirements for legal notice or service, shall not be considered official public comment and shall not be construed as an official request for records pursuant to the Right-to-Know Law.

Pike County may post links to other organizations on its social media pages. A link does not constitute an endorsement of content, viewpoint, policies, products or services that may exist on that site. Once a user clicks a link to another website not maintained by the County, the user is subject to the terms and conditions of that website.

The following forms of content shall not be allowed on any Pike County social media website, profile or application and article and comments associated therein.

• Profane and/or vulgar language or content

• Content that promotes, fosters or perpetuates discrimination on the basis of creed, color, age, race, gender, religion, marital status, or status with regard to public assistance, national origin, intellectual or physical disability or sexual orientation

• Sexual content or links to sexual content, including a poster with a profile picture containing nudity or sexually explicit content

• Solicitation of commerce

• Solicitation for donations. This shall not apply to any official Pike County posting providing the public with information related to fundraisers, activities and projects that are supported or sponsored by the County.

• Conduct constituting or encouraging illegal activity

• Information that may compromise the safety, security or proceedings of the public, public systems or any criminal or civil investigations

• Name-calling and/or personal attacks

• Spam, such as the same content being posted repeatedly

• Content that violates the legal ownership interest of a party, trademark or copyright laws

• Content containing personally private information, including but not limited to identifiable medical information

Any content removed based upon these guidelines must be retained by the County Commissioners, or a designee, or the appropriate department/agency including the time, date and identity of the poster when available, pursuant to Pennsylvania state law. Unless otherwise addressed in a specific social media standards document or County retention schedules, the County Commissioners, or a designee, or the appropriate department/agency shall preserve records required to be maintained for a period of no less than one year on a County server in a format that preserves the integrity of the original record and is easily accessible.

The County reserves the right to restrict or remove any content that is deemed in violation of this social media policy or any applicable law.

Pike County is prohibited from banning or blocking any user or subscriber to any official Pike County social media account unless their participation is creating an illegal or unmanageable situation. In such cases, a block must be approved by the County Commissioners or a designee.

Comments, media or other information posted to or displayed on the County's social media sites, accounts, and content are subject to monitoring and review at all times. Users should have no expectation to privacy with respect to their postings. Monitoring does not occur constantly due to staff resources; therefore, Pike County is not liable for inappropriate or offensive comments that may be posted.