Social Media Policy

Purpose

The City of Watertown is committed to using current social media. Use of this technology meets a critical need to inform the public about city resources and activities, increase the use of city resources and provide additional communication with members of the public. The City of Watertown regards social media as an information source that is in accordance with its mission of serving the public to meet their informational, educational, cultural, and recreational needs. Social media sites allow all members of the community access to the resources of the City of Watertown without requiring a visit to the City Hall.

Definition

Social media is defined as any website or application which allows users to share information. Examples of social media are: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, wikis, photo sharing, video sharing, blogs, Flickr, Wordpress, and city reviews.

Application

Comments, posts, and messages are welcome on the City of Watertown social networking sites/media. While the City recognizes and respects differences in opinion, all such interactions will be regularly monitored and reviewed for content and relevancy (before publishing if possible). The City of Watertown social media sites provide a limited (or designated) public forum intended for moderated discussion. Postings which contain the following will be removed at the Digital Media Manager's discretion and the poster may be precluded from posting any subsequent messages to City social networking sites:

  • Obscene, sexist or racist content
  • Personal attacks, insults, or threatening language
  • Potentially libelous statements
  • Plagiarized or copy-written material
  • Violation of intellectual property rights
  • Private, personal information published without consent of the appropriate party
  • Comments totally unrelated to the content of the discussion/posts that are off-topic
  • Comments that have the sole purpose to annoy
  • Hyperlinks to material that is not directly related to the discussion
  • Commercial promotions, petitions, or spam
  • Organized political activity
  • Photos or other images that fall in any of the above categories

Notwithstanding the above, the City of Watertown is not obligated to take such actions and will not be responsible or liable for content posted by any subscriber in any forum, message board, or other area within our social media sites.

City of Watertown's Communications staff reserve the right to not publish any posting, or to remove it later. The staff reserves the right to edit or modify postings or content, while retaining the intent of the original post. The City has right to reproduce comments, posts and messages in other public venues/city publications.

The City of Watertown assumes no liability regarding any event that occurs or interaction that takes place involving any participant in any city-sponsored social networking media service. The City does not endorse or review content outside the “pages” created by City staff.

City social networking sites may be terminated at any time without notice to subscribers.

Challenges to social media used by the City will be dealt with in the same manner using the City’s reconsideration policy. Patrons who are blocked and/or have had comments deleted by City staff may appeal this action, in writing, to the Digital Media Manager of the City within 30 days; the Digital Media Manager will affirm or reverse the staff’s decision within 30 days after the written appeal.

Indemnification

By posting content, the patron/user agrees to indemnify the City of Watertown and its officers and employees from and against all liabilities, judgments and damages and costs (including attorney’s fees) incurred by any of them which arise out of or are related to the posted content.

If any user does not agree to these terms, he or she should not use the social media services.