Layton City's Social Media Policy

Version 1.0, May 2020

Introduction

Layton City is active on social media to provide information regarding our community, local activities and facilitating our citizens being informed.

Being a public entity, there are laws and standards with which the City must comply. Based on that, the City has established standards, community guidelines, policies, and terms for use. By using any City social media site, you accept and agree to these terms, together with the City's policies. These may change without notice, and your continued use of the sites is your acceptance to these policies and agreement.

Layton City's social media properties are public, which means that anyone can see your posts to our social channels, and your posts may even show up in search engine results.

While the City encourages open discussion, the City may remove or hide posts that don't fit the City's standards or community guidelines. Please remember, though, that this forum contains the opinions and views of other users. Although the City monitors its channels in an effort to ensure compliance with these standards and guidelines, we cannot be responsible for the accuracy or reliability of any comments or materials posted by users.

For the benefit of lively discussion, the City asks that comments remain on topic. This means that comments should relate to the topic that is being discussed within that post and/or tweet. While the City welcomes reasonable critiques, comments that violate these standards and guidelines may be deleted, removed or hidden when those comments aren't relevant, accurate, or fail to add to the overall experience.

Basic Guidelines

• Stay on topic, use common courtesy, and be respectful of others
• Submit your own original content, and avoid posting content that you know or suspect to be false
• Do not post someone else's copyrighted work unless you have permission
• Anything posted to the City's social media sites can and may be used for any purpose the City deems appropriate
• Never post anything you wish to be kept confidential or for which you expect to be compensated
• Never post personal, identifying, or confidential information such as yours or anyone else's account number, address, phone number, email address, or social security number
• Layton City is not responsible for views expressed other than our own
• The City's social media sites are monitored by City employees solely for the purposed of ensuring compliance with the standards and guidelines. Please do not expect a response. If you want to ensure a response, please go to the City's web site and use the “web feedback” feature found there, or call .

Inquiries; Complaint Reporting

The City recognizes that social media has become a popular avenue through which citizens seek answers to questions, report complaints, etc. If you are making such an inquiry or report, please go to the City's web site and use the “web feedback” feature found there. Of course you can always call the City at .

Layton City Online and Social Media Community Policies

I. Monitoring and Moderation Policies

Though Layton City social media sites are monitored, the City has no obligation to accept, display, review, monitor, or maintain any content posted to any social media site, and it does reserve the right to monitor, prohibit, restrict, block, suspend, terminate, delete, or discontinue access to any social media site, at any time, without notice, for any violation of law, standards, or policies. While it has no duty to do so, the City reserves the right to delete comments or posts that are abusive, inflammatory or otherwise inappropriate. Broader community guidelines include:

• Our social media sites are a place for information regarding our community. Any conversations occurring thereon are not a substitute for direct communication with the City.
• Do not post or transmit material you do not have the right to post or transmit under law (such as copyright, trade secrets, or securities) or due to your personal contractual or fiduciary relationships.
• Our social media sites may not be used for the submission of any claim, demand, informal or formal complaint, or any other form of legal and/or administrative notice or process, or for the exhaustion of any legal and/or administrative remedy.
• Layton City reserves the right to ban any user from our sites without prior written notice or consent for violations of community policies, standards, or laws. Any comments posted which are deemed to be criminal in nature, or instigates or implies violence toward oneself or another may be reported to the proper authorities.

Courtesy and Relevance

Please treat the community and your fellow participants with respect – even if you disagree with a post or comment. Do not post any content or comments that may be inappropriate, offensive, profane, culturally, racially, gender, or socially insensitive, disruptive, harassing or defamatory.

For the benefit of healthy discussion, please ensure that comments remain on topic and relevant to the conversation. This means that comments should relate to the topic that is being discussed within that wall post. Off-topic posts may be hidden, moved, or removed.

Removal of Posts / Banning of Users

While Layton City has no duty to do so, the City reserves the right to remove or hide any comments or posts that violate these guidelines, policies, standards or law. Layton City may ban offenders from the City's social media sites and may delete comments or posts that are:

• Profane, obscene, inappropriate, disruptive or unrelated to the topic and conversation.
• Indecent, sexually explicit or pornographic material of any kind — including masked profanity where symbols, initials, intentional misspellings or other characters are used to suggest profane language.
• Threats; personal attacks; abusive, defamatory, derogatory, ad hominem attacks, or inflammatory language; or stalking or harassment of any individual, entity or organization.
• Impersonating any person or entity or falsely state or otherwise misrepresenting an affiliation with a person or entity.
• Discriminatory or containing hateful speech of any kind regarding age, ethnicity, gender, race, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, political affiliations, disability or other characteristics.
• False, inaccurate, libelous or otherwise misleading in any way.
• Spam, or content containing or linking to any kind of virus, malware, spyware, or similar program that could cause harm to a user's computer.
• Repeated or identical posts
• Solicitations or content that promote commercial interests, campaigns, causes or views.
• Any posts which might constitute a criminal offense or give rise to civil liability, or that otherwise violates local, national or international laws or regulations
• Any posts which might identify matters that are currently the subject of legal proceedings or would break a court's non-publication order

Suspension/Termination/Reporting to Authority

Layton City is serious in the pursuit of its objective to provide information and facilitate an exchange of information, with the utmost priority being everyone's safety. Therefore, any comments posted which are criminal in nature, or instigate or imply violence towards oneself or another may be reported to the proper authorities.

Layton City employees will not engage in discussions, and will not respond to comments, about security threats or threatened or current litigation involving the City. Any such inquiries should be directed to the City's Attorney's Office. Comments or posts regarding security issues or litigation may be removed.

Based in established criteria, Layton City may suspend, terminate or ban certain repeat offenders and/or those committing significant violations of these guidelines, standards, or policies. The City may also refer and work with the applicable platform and the appropriate authorities to review and or pursue certain violations.

If you wish to report or flag a user post/comment as inappropriate yourself, please follow the then current published procedures of the platform where the post originated.

II. Comment and Posting Policies

All those commenting or posting are responsible for their comments or posts. The opinions, statements and viewpoints expressed by those posting do not reflect the opinion of Layton City or constitute an official position of the City.

Layton City is not responsible for, and does not validate any opinions, assertions or other statements expressed in, any user comments.

The City expects conversations to follow the rules of polite discourse and the City requires that participants treat each other, as well as City officials and employees, with respect.

Links to Third-Party Sites

The City may occasionally post links to third-party sites when the City determines the general information could be helpful. Please note that this does not in any way constitute an official endorsement of the site or company, and it does not mean the City has performed a comprehensive validation of the content.

Spam, Links, and Online Safety

Your posts should never contain any unauthorized and/or unsolicited advertising, spam, hyperlinks, or content protected by copyright, trademark or other rights. For your online safety, the City strongly encourages you to avoid opening any third party-provided hyperlinks posted to the City's sites or the platform you are viewing the post upon unless you trust the source of that post.

III. Copyright and Intellectual Property Policies

By submitting any content to the City's Social Media Sites, you warrant and represent that you are the copyright owner of the content or that the copyright owner of the content has granted you permission to use such content consistent with the manner and purpose of your use.

Using the City's Social Media Sites to distribute unauthorized copies of copyrighted material, including photos, artwork, text, recordings, designs, computer programs or derivative works of such programs is strictly prohibited, subject to removal, liability, and prosecution.

Infringement on any party's copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, intellectual property, or other proprietary rights, or right of publicity or privacy is strictly prohibited and is your sole responsibility.

Ownership and License of the Content You Post

Please note that by posting comments, posts, tagged photos, videos, ideas, or any other content on the City's Social Media Sites, you are granting Layton City non-exclusive, worldwide rights to republish, redistribute, or otherwise use this content (including your name, profile photo, likeness and social media handle or other publicly shared information) in perpetuity in any way the City deems appropriate. This includes, but is not limited to, marketing and promotional materials.

You represent that to the best of your knowledge you own or have the permission to make such posts and grant the above rights to the City.

Therefore, please do not submit any ideas or materials that you wish to keep confidential or for which you expect to receive compensation.

V. Privacy and Security Policies

Protect Your Personal Information

Layton City's social media sites are available to the public. To protect your privacy and the privacy of others, no information you consider confidential should be posted to this site, including personally identifiable information such as social security numbers, full account numbers, telephone numbers or e-mail addresses in any comment or post. Any comment or post containing personally identifiable information may be deleted.

Respect Others' Privacy Too

Please protect your privacy and the privacy of others by not sharing personal information about you, your family, or others on the City's social media site or other social media.

Layton City Social Media Privacy Policies

Layton City is a municipal corporation and is a public entity. Below are the guidelines for readers of the City's social media sites and for those commenting or posting thereon. These guidelines are not to be confused with the City's terms of use.

With respect to content collected through our social media sites, Layton City follows each social networks' individual privacy policies, which can be accessed on the networks' respective websites. Please note that when visiting any official Layton City social media account, when applicable, you are also subject to the terms and conditions of the City's privacy policy and general terms of use, as well as the social network's terms of service and privacy policy.

Layton City may disclose information about your communications and activities with the City in relation to any social media site in response to lawful requests by governmental authorities, lawful requests pursuant to the Governmental Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA), or for the protection of the City's interests or the rights or interests of third parties as the City reasonable determines. In the event that the City exercises any of its options hereunder, the City will have no liability to you.

The City is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, appropriateness, legality or applicability of the materials or anything said, depicted or written by users, including without limitation any information obtained by using our social media sites.

Layton City does not endorse or espouse any content or materials, or any views, opinions, recommendations, or advice expressed on or in any social media site, and any sites linked to the City's social media sites. The City neither endorses nor assumes responsibility for the content of any site linked to social media sites.

Layton City will have no responsibility or liability to you or any third party as a result of your activities, and you are solely responsible for any activities you do in connection with or via any social media site. By posting any content on any Layton City social media site, you grant to the City the irrevocable, perpetual and unrestricted right to reproduce, distribute, publish, and display, edit or modify such content, and to use, and to authorize or license third parties to use, such content, or portions or elements thereof, for any purpose, in any and all manner and media known or hereafter devised, and for any and all purposes, including commercial purposes, world-wide, without any obligation or compensation to you of any kind. Layton City has the right to create derivative works from any or all of the content (“Derivative Works”), and such Derivative Works shall be the sole and exclusive property of the City. You disclaim all rights, title or interests you may have in such Derivative Works, and fully assign, convey and transfer any and all rights that you have or may have in the Derivative Works exclusively to Layton City.

You understand that Layton City is under no obligation to use, display or acknowledge any content you submit, and the City reserves the right to remove, hide, or to refuse to post any content or submission based on the criteria set forth herein. You acknowledge that you, not Layton City, are responsible for the content and for compliance with these Terms.

By posting any content on any social media site, you represent and warrant that you are the sole creator and owner of any intellectual property rights in the content, or that you own or have the necessary licenses, rights, consents and permissions to use and authorize Layton City to use all patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, or other proprietary rights in and to any and all of your entries of content, to enable inclusion and use of your entries and content in the manner contemplated in these terms of Use.

You fully release Layton City from any and all claims that may arise regarding your use of or participation on the social media sites or the use, accessing or posting of the content. By posting a comment, you agree the City and its providers shall have no liability to you with respect to any information or material posted by others, including defamatory, offensive, or illicit materials, even though it may violate this policy and use agreement.

You agree that any claim or dispute relating to your posting of any Content on a social media site shall be construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Utah without regard to its conflict of laws provisions and you agree to be bound and shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state or federal courts located in the State of Utah.

Layton City reserves the right to change these guidelines at any time in its sole discretion and without notice. Your continued us of these sites is your acceptance to these policies and this use agreement.