Social Media Policy

Social media accounts maintained by the City of Amesbury are intended primarily as a vehicle for the communication of government speech, and content on each social media site is designed chiefly to provide information and help fulfill service requests.  Any inclusion of third-party hyperlinks, images, applications, or references on a City social media site does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by the City of Amesbury. Their inclusion is simply to provide users with relevant information and resources.

The City expects conversations/posts to follow the rules of polite discourse and we ask that participants treat each other, as well as our employees, with respect. Moreover, for the benefit of robust discussion, as well as to ensure that individual social media threads remain “on-topic,” we ask that comments relate to the topic that is being discussed within the particular social media site. 

The City reserves the right to restrict or remove any content that is deemed in violation of this social media policy or applicable law.   In particular, comments or posts that fall into the following categories may be removed:

• Profanity and vulgar or abusive language 
• Threats of physical or bodily harm
• The advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service, or any entity or individual
• Sensitive information; for example, information that could compromise public safety, or reveals medical information or privacy protected information about others 
• The promotion or endorsement of political campaigns or candidates
• The promotion or endorsement of illegal or criminal activities
• Content containing links to phishing content or “spam,” or other avenues through which personal data and/or financial information can be “hacked” 
• Language that is harassing or discriminatory and targets protected classes, such as ethnic, racial, or religious groups, or the sexual orientation or gender identity of others
• Comments found by the City of Amesbury social media team to be off-topic

Given constitutional considerations, the City is not responsible for, and neither endorses nor opposes, comments placed on a City maintained social media site by visitors to the site.  Visitors to the City’s social media sites are reminded that they should be familiar with any terms of use associated with each social media platform, as established by the social media platform provider. 

Any comments submitted to the City’s social media platforms, pages or sites are public records subject to disclosure or re-disclosure as may be required under the state Public Records Law.   For a more complete discussion of the implications of the Public Records Law for social media, please refer to Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Secretary of State's Office Guide to the Public Records Law (PDF), which includes FAQs as well as the text of the statute.