This is the Official City of Richfield Government Page! CITY OF RICHFIELD SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY DATE: November 21, 2024 (Supersedes Social Media Comments Policy dated November 9, 2011) SUBJECT: Social Media Use and Moderation Purpose Using social networks serves to communicate and deliver messages directly to the community and to encourage public involvement, interaction, and feedback. The City of Richfield recognizes the value of social media to provide accurate, consistent and timely information about City functions, services, and activities to strengthen the City’s relationship with the community through engagement. The purpose of this policy is to establish a procedure for monitoring the City’s online discussion while protecting the free speech rights of its users. The City recognizes that by maintaining a social media page and allowing users to comment on said page, it has created a limited public forum. The City of Richfield uses social media applications to present news and information relating to the City. We encourage people to submit questions, comments, and concerns. The City reminds users that social media feeds are accessible to the public, and asks users to keep comments appropriate and civil. The City of Richfield wishes to establish a positive and informative social media presence. City representatives have the responsibility to use the City’s social media resources in an efficient, effective, ethical, and lawful manner pursuant to all existing City policies. Scope The City of Richfield’s social media accounts are considered a City asset and administrator access to these accounts will be securely administered in accordance with the City’s Social Media Policy. The City reserves the right to shut down any of its social media sites or accounts for any reason without notice. The City does not create or maintain social media accounts for its elected officials. This policy applies to any existing or proposed social media websites sponsored, established, registered, or authorized by the City of Richfield. The City does not create, collect, disseminate, or regulate use of any other social media accounts, including the personal accounts of its elected officials and staff. Rules Of Use and Moderation City staff will not edit any posted comments or restrict comments based on commentor’s viewpoints. However, comments posted by members of the public will be removed if they are obscene, defamatory, in violation of the copyright, trademark right or other intellectual property right of any third party, or malware. The following are examples of content that may be removed by City staff before or shortly after being published: (i) Comments containing defamatory statements against a person, either as determined by a court or comments that are patently defamatory by easily discoverable facts; (ii) Comments containing obscenity, which is defined as sexually explicit and/or pornographic content that is patently offensive, appeals to prurient interest, and lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value; (iii) Comments that promote or advocate illegal discrimination based on race, age, religion, gender, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any other legally protected class; (iv) Comments that encourage or promote illegal activity or compromise public safety, including comments that contain direct threats to persons or property; (v) Duplicate comments posted repeatedly within a short period of time; (vi) Comments that are spam or promotion; (vii) Comments that are plagiarized, or infringe on copyrights or trademarks; (viii) Comments that publish statutorily private, confidential, or nonpublic data. A member of the public whose comment is removed may appeal the removal of the comment and seek reconsideration of its removal by contacting the City to discuss the decision to remove the comment with the Communications and Engagement Manager. If necessary, the decision may be discussed for further review by the City Manager, and as appropriate, the City Attorney. When possible, comments that are removed for falling into one of the above categories will be hidden or archived, and not permanently deleted. When a comment is hidden or removed, a copy or electronic record of the comment will be retained or archived pursuant to applicable law and the City’s record retention policy, along with a brief description of the reason the content was deleted. Some comments may be permanently deleted immediately consistent with law. Please note that any public comments expressed on a City site do not reflect the opinions and position of the City of Richfield. The City does not endorse any product, service, company or organization advertising on its social media pages. The ads that appear on social media pages are sold, posted and maintained by those social media companies. If you have any questions concerning the operation of any Richfield online moderated discussion site, please contact the Communications and Engagement Manager. Approved: Katie Rodriguez City Manager
