South Hadley is rich in history, culture and rural charm in the heart of the Pioneer Valley. The Selectboard and Town staff hope that you will find these pages informative on a wide range of issues and topics affecting our community. Town of South Hadley Social Media Policy
Adopted by the South Hadley Selectboard
February 3, 2015
This policy applies to all social media tools, including, but not l
imited to, Facebook and Twitter. These open forums are meant to allow residents and other participants to participate in community conversations and receive information from the municipality. If you choose to comment it should be acknowledged that you are personally responsible for the comments you make or information you submit. We ask that you keep your comments civil and within the boundaries of appropriate public language. The Selectboard reserves the right to remove any posts and take further steps necessary to maintain a civil discord on all social media sites. Any such removal of material or other monitoring will be performed by an administrator designated by the Selectboard.
• Do not post material which is commercial or political in nature.
• Do not post obscene, graphic, threatening, violent or racial comments.
• Posts that are hateful, abusive, vindictive, or threatening to an individual, group or organization are not allowed.
• Any commercial postings will be removed, including advertisements, prizes, promotions, financing or other such matters. Posts attempting to defraud or mislead the public will be removed and referred to the proper agency for investigation.
• Any post which suggests or implies an illegal activity will be removed and reported to the proper authority.
• Comments related to litigation, contract negations or administrative proceedings which may adversely affect, cause prejudice or otherwise degrade the public process for the municipality, other parties or individuals will be removed.
• Apparent spamming or trolling will be removed and the party may be blocked.
• Use of trademark material, images or copyrighted material is forbidden. Images posted should be the property of the user.
• Do not post documents of any kind.
• Do not posts lists, rosters, organizational charts or directories.
• The Town of South Hadley reserves the right to remove any material and block any user. Any party suspected to be a chronic violator of this policy or otherwise threatening the purpose of this policy will be permanently banned. An appeal to the full Selectboard may be allowed for a permanently banned user, if the Selectboard so choses. However, the party requesting such an appeal must present and give access to all postings, materials and/or hard drives requested by the Selectboard thirty days prior to the hearing. The Selectboard may request a forensic audit of the equipment at the appellant’s expense. All information posted to social media is considered to be in the public domain. The Town of South Hadley does not necessarily authenticate or fact check material posted by users and subsequently does not vouch for the veracity of any posts from users.
