Social Media Community Guidelines

The City of Newcastle hosts a range of social media channels and we welcome your comments and encourage you to openly discuss and share your opinions with us and our followers.

We need to make sure that everyone feels safe to interact with our social channels and we will remove posts that:

  • Break the law, incite violence or lawlessness, or encourage others to do so, including violation of copyright laws
  • Encourage or glamorise the use of alcohol, tobacco, or illegal drugs
  • Contain abusive, demeaning, or inappropriate language or statements. This prohibition includes remarks that are discriminatory on the basis of race, gender, religion, national origin, age, or disability, as well as those that contain profanity, are sexually explicit, lewd, provocative, or that describe graphic violence or lawlessness
  • Are libellous, defamatory, disruptive or unreasonably negative in tone and content
  • Infringe another individual’s privacy
  • Are an advertisement for a business or commercial operation or is a solicitation of donations
  • Are spam - i.e. repeatedly posting the same comment or comments
  • Are not generally suited for an audience of all ages.

  • Posts that are off-topic or not related to published content.

We will not tolerate bullying, trolling or any other forms of harassment on any of our social media channels and any users that display this kind of behaviour may be restricted from interacting with us on social media.

We will also protect the privacy and rights of individuals and will not allow for information that identifies people or confidential information about City of Newcastle and its employees to be posted on our social media channels.

Note: These guidelines are additional to any policy, or terms and conditions, imposed by the host social media platform used by City of Newcastle. The account administrators will review all postings to ensure they follow these guidelines.

Responding to facebook comments and direct messages

Customer enquiries posted to the City of Newcastle Facebook page or submitted via direct message are responded to as quickly as possible during business hours.

Service requests cannot be lodged through our social media channels. Here's what you need to do if you want to lodge a request, make an enquiry, provide a compliment or make a complaint:

Disclaimer

City of Newcastle has made a reasonable effort to ensure that the information contained on our online platforms, including social media accounts, is current and accurate at the time the account was created or last modified. Council makes no guarantee of any kind, and no legal contract between City of Newcastle and any person or entity is to be inferred from the use of or information on any social media channel. City of Newcastle gives no warranty and accepts no responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of information found on its channels. No user should rely on the information, but instead should check for confirmation with the originating or authorising body. City of Newcastle reserves the right at any time to make such changes as it deems appropriate to that information.

Any links to external websites, applications and/or information provided on City of Newcastle's online platforms, including social media accounts, are provided as courtesy. They should not be construed as an endorsement by Council of the content or condition or views of the linked materials. Any advertisement that may appear when viewing our accounts is not endorsed by City of Newcastle, nor are we directly affiliated with the advertisement unless stated otherwise.

Privacy

We will not collect and record your personal details, such as your user identity and email address, through our social media channels. Please refer to individual social media channels for their privacy policies.

View the City of Newcastle Council Privacy Statement.