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SOCIAL MEDIA COMMUNITY GUIDELINES

The South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) is active across social media, sharing news, events, photos, videos and resources in order to communicate and engage with South Yorkshire residents.

We want our social media channels to be safe spaces and a place for healthy, open and insightful discussion.

By commenting on SYMCA’s Social Media Channels (or those of other SYMCA channels, for example Travel South Yorkshire, or TSY) you are agreeing to abide by these community guidelines and agree not to post any material that:

  • Discriminates based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, sex, religion, age, disability;
  • Is abusive, threatening or libellous towards the mayor, SYMCA officers, external stakeholders, or anyone else on our page;
  • Uses language that is offensive, hateful, harassing, inflammatory or provocative.
  • Shares misinformation or disinformation;
  • Comes from fake accounts or bots and hijack the comments of a post;
  • Advertises or promotes services or products that are not relevant to the post;
  • Includes promotional material, such as links to external websites, requests for sponsorship or party political content;
  • Impersonates or falsely claims to represent a person or an organisation;
  • Is repetitive and persistent, and aims to provoke a response;
  • Is in violation of any law, including the Contempt of Court Act, or regulation or promoting illegal activity;
  • Is potentially defamatory to any individual;
  • Is in violation of copyright;
  • Identifies a victim, witness or suspect by any means that could affect their personal safety, for example; names, address, school, place of work etc;
  • Identifies a serving police officer or member of staff in a manner that could affect their personal safety, threatens violence or is grossly derogatory;
  • Is off topic.

We moderate all our channels to encourage constructive debate, manage abusive comments and remove misinformation shared on posts.

Therefore, we are likely to either remove or delete comments, without warning, which are in breach of these guidelines.

When making decisions on whether to remove or delete comments we will take into consideration relevant legislation including the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Online Safety Act 2023.

If you persistently post comments that are not in line with these guidelines, you may be temporarily or permanently blocked from our social media accounts. 

We encourage respectful discussion. You don’t have to agree with what people say or share but please treat everyone with dignity and courtesy.

Direct messages

Direct messages will generally only be responded to during standard office hours (09:00 – 17:00 on weekdays).

Pre-election periods

Our accounts are non-political, and we ask users to respect this and understand that we cannot engage in any political debate.

In the six-week run-up to an election, we have to be especially careful not to do or say anything that could be seen in any way to support a political party or candidate.

We will continue to publish important announcements using social media.

Follow SYMCA on:

Twitter

Facebook

LinkedIn

Instagram

Youtube

Follow the Mayor on:

Twitter

Facebook

Follow Travel South Yorkshire on:

Twitter

Facebook

Follow Supertram on:

Twitter

LinkedIn

Note

Researched and compiled using existing government and public sector community guidelines, including: