Athens Fire & Rescue

City of Athens, Alabama, Policy for Interactions on Social Media Accounts From time to time, the City of Athens may establish social media platforms to augment traditional methods of the exchange and delivery of information related to the City of Athens. These social media platforms may include opportunities for citizens to interact with one another and with city officials. Examples of such platforms include Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. In those cases, the areas where citizens can post comments and interact with city officials and other users are hereby designated as limited public forums. The City of Athens’ social media pages and platforms are meant for a certain purpose – for City of Athens officials to provide the public with convenient and efficient access to information about the City’s mission, activities, programs, and services. The platforms sometime provide for city officials to then receive questions and comments from the public regarding those items that the City has posted. The City of Athens makes reasonable efforts to ensure the accuracy of the information provided on these social media platforms. However, due to the possibility of unauthorized modification of the data, transmission errors, HTML browser incompatibilities, human error, changes made since the last update, or other aspects of electronic communication that are beyond the City's control, the City does not guarantee the accuracy of the information provided and encourages uses to contact City Hall at 256-233-8730 to verify information. The City specifically disavows legal responsibility for what a user may find on another site, or for the personal opinions of individuals posted on any social media site, whether or not operated by the City. The views and opinions of the authors of documents published on or linked to the City's site do not necessarily state or reflect the opinion, policy, or position of the City. The City is not responsible for the content, quality, accuracy, or completeness of any off-site materials referenced or linked through the City's site. In order for these social media forums to provide an effective and efficient location for this information and exchanges, they are limited to the discussion of certain subjects, but not to others. As such, the City’s social media interactive forums are not open to a citizen’s comments or discussion of the following: 1. Reply posts that are unrelated to the City’s posts (i.e., comments that are not topically related to the particular posting being commented upon); 2. Obscenity, fraud, incitement, and speech integral to criminal conduct; 3. Profane or sexual language or content; 4. Promotion, encouragement, or perpetuation of discrimination of protected classes; 5. Subjects constituting sexual harassment; 6. Advertisement, promotion, endorsement, or solicitation of commercial goods or services; 7. Promotion of or opposition to political issues, candidates, groups, or individuals; 8. Conduct or encouragement of illegal activity; 9. Information that may tend to compromise the safety or security of the public or public systems; 10. Content intended to disparage or defame any person, group, or organization; 11. Content that violates a legal ownership interest of any other party, such as trademark or copyright infringement; 12. Making or publishing of false, vicious, or malicious statements concerning any person; 13. Harassing, violent, or threatening content; 14. Repetitive information posted multiple times; 15. Disclosure of confidential, sensitive, or proprietary information; 16. Advocating for alteration of hours, wages, and terms and conditions of employment; or 17. City’s compliance or alleged non-compliance with state or federal laws. (Note: The City does not review social media platforms for complaints against the City relating to legal compliance, and posting on such platforms does not constitute notice to the City of any such complaint. Persons with complaints against the City relating to legal compliance may contact the City Clerk directly.) The City reserves the right to restrict or remove any content that is deemed in violation of this policy or any applicable law. Repeat individual violators may be temporarily removed from access to the City’s social media platforms, with or without notice. Please contact the Mayor with respect to any legal issues concerning content management and deletion. The City disclaims any and all responsibility and liability for any materials that the City deems inappropriate for posting, which cannot be removed in an expeditious and otherwise timely manner. All persons submitting comments and/or materials to any social media site of the City should be aware that information on the City’s social media sites may be subject to the Alabama Open Records Law. Adopted July 23, 2018 This City of Athens reserves the right to amend or revoke all or part of this policy.

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