Online Posted Content and Commentary Policy

Purpose

The Seattle Police Foundation relies on various online tools, including social media and other platforms, to raise awareness of its mission and to share about the work it does to support law enforcement and help improve public safety in Seattle. The purpose of this policy is to establish basic guidelines, standards, and instructions for the external use of the Seattle Police Foundation’s social media, website, and other online environments.

Scope

This policy applies to all online services and sites hosted, managed, or administered by the Seattle Police Foundation. This includes social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn, as well as blogs, websites, discussion forums, social media, and any sites that accept posted content and commentary in the form of comments, links, replies, “likes,” “follows,” “retweets,” etc.

Posted Content and Commentary

The following will not be tolerated when interacting with Seattle Police Foundation social media, blogs, and other online forums:

• Potentially libelous comments
• Profane language or content
• Content that promotes, fosters or perpetuates discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, age, religion, gender, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, national origin, physical or mental disability or sexual orientation
• Obscene or racist comments
• Sexual content or links to sexual content
• Conduct or encouragement of illegal activity
• Personal attacks, harassment, insults or threatening language
• Comments not meaningfully related to the particular topic presented
• Repetitive posts of the same material that disrupt normal operation of the forum
• Hyperlinks to material not directly related to the discussion
• Information that may compromise the safety or security of the public or public systems
• Content that violates a legal ownership interest of any other party
• Postings of, or requests for, other participants’ personal information, such as phone number, address, financial accounts, etc.
• Impersonation of someone else
• Commercial messages, including advertisements and solicitations and spam
• Support for or opposition to political campaigns or ballot measures

Posts, comments, replies, or any public commentary containing any of the above may be deleted. Multiple violations may result in the restriction of your ability to interact with the Seattle Police Foundation on social media, blogs, or other online forums.

We respect the privacy of your identity; however, persons making threats or using offensive language may be reported to the appropriate authorities.

Links

The Seattle Police Foundation may select and post links to other sites. Postings made by the Seattle Police Foundation on social media, blogs, or other sites do not indicate the Seattle Police Foundation’s endorsement of the ideas, issues, links, or commentary posted. Endorsement is also not implied via “following,” “friending,” “liking,” or otherwise linking to other online entities.

Once a user follows a link to another page or site, the Seattle Police Foundation’s policies no longer apply, and the user becomes subject to the policies of that page or site. The Seattle Police Foundation’s sites are intended specifically to share information about Seattle Police Foundation programs, events and services. The Seattle Police Foundation is not responsible for the content that appears on these outside links and provides these links as a convenience only. Users should be aware that these external pages and sites and the information found on those pages and sites are not controlled by, provided by or endorsed by the Seattle Police Foundation.

The Seattle Police Foundation reserves the right to delete links posted by outside individuals that violate the Seattle Police Foundation’s Posts policy at any time without notice.

Thank you for your cooperation and adherence to these guidelines.