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Social Media Guidelines

California Residential Mitigation Program (“CRMP”)

Social Media Guidelines

Effective as of October 20, 2020

Purpose

The purpose of these CRMP Social Media Guidelines (“Guidelines”) is to facilitate the communication between staff and the public regarding CRMP initiatives, programs and other agency information. CRMP welcomes comments and opinions that relate to relevant topics and issues pertaining to the work undertaken by CRMP across its social media platforms. By facilitating such communication, CRMP does not intend to create a public or designated public forum by which visitors may address unrelated comments or concerns.

Public Terms of Use

By engaging with official CRMP social media pages or in response to CRMP-generated postings, including advertisements, users agree to abide by the terms and conditions of these Guidelines, and gives express permission to the CRMP to monitor, filter, and/or remove content found in violation of these Guidelines. CRMP reserves the right to monitor, filter, and remove any content (text, links, video, etc.) posted by the public that is deemed to be in violation under these Guidelines, including content that is:

  1. Not topically related to the posted topic in question or the existing discussion.
  2. Found to promote, foster, or perpetuate discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, age, religion, physical or mental disability or sexual orientation.
  3. Disruptive or factually inaccurate such that the content compromises public safety or operations.
  4. Harassing, threatening, abusive or vulgar content (including personal attacks or comments disparaging an individual or group based on ethnicity, race, gender, religion, age, disability or sexual orientation), or content which invades the personal privacy of any individual.
  5. Advertising or spam, including any link to another website.
  6. Infringing on a copyright or other proprietary right.
  7. Contrary to applicable state or federal law or that encourages any kind of illegal activity.
  8. Promoting obscene, violent, sexual or pornographic content and/or language.
  9. Posted with external links leading to any of the above listed inappropriate forms of content.
  10. Defamatory or personal attacks about CRMP employees.
  11. Personal identifying information, including any home addresses, home or cell phone numbers, personal email addresses, or any account names or numbers or similar information. “Personal identifying information” does not include names or CRMP-specific email addresses.

CRMP does not discriminate against any views or positions. Users that repeatedly post on CRMP’s social media pages in a manner that is inappropriate and in violation of the express limitations imposed by these Guidelines, may be temporarily blocked from posting on CRMP-affiliated social media sites. If any user is temporarily blocked from posting on CRMP-affiliated social media sites, they will be alerted to the reasons why electronically. CRMP will keep a log of all offending content that has been removed from its social media pages in violation of these Guidelines.

Moderation

It is understood that social media is a 24/7 medium; however, our moderation capabilities are not. CRMP may not see every inappropriate comment right away, and we are trusting in the maturity of our community to ignore personal attacks and negative speech until it’s been reviewed and/or removed.

Copyright

Much of the content provided by the CRMP on all social media sites is protected by American and worldwide copyright laws and treaty provisions and other relevant intellectual property rights. No content, including but not limited to text, photographs, or videos posted by the CRMP may be copied, reposted, or used in any other context without the explicit permission of the CRMP. Any such use may be treated as a copyright violation and the CRMP may enforce its rights to the fullest extent of the law.

No Endorsement

External, non-CRMP links on our social media sites do not constitute official endorsement on behalf of the CRMP. Comments posted by a member of the public on a CRMP social media site are the opinion of the commenter, and publication of comments does not imply endorsement of or agreement by CRMP, nor do such comments necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of CRMP.

Likes, shares or retweets on or from official CRMP social media pages do not constitute endorsements by CRMP.

Record Retention and the Public Records Act

Please be aware that all CRMP social media page content—including, but not limited to, a list of subscribers, posted communications and private messages sent from or received by a CRMP social media page—may be considered a public record subject to disclosure under the California Public Records Act, and any relevant state law or CRMP policy related to open government and transparency.

California law and any relevant, applicable record retention statutes apply to CRMP social media content.  CRMP shall preserve social media records for the required retention period in a format that preserves the integrity of the original record, pursuant to State standards, and is easily accessible.

Personal Social Media Usage by CRMP representatives

CRMP recognizes that employees and other representatives of CRMP broadly have the right to express their views through private or personal social media use. However, CRMP employees and representatives must understand that non—public information (e.g. proprietary information; confidential personnel records; attorney-client privileged communications; etc.) may not be conveyed through social media unless and until the release of such information becomes lawful and has been authorized by CRMP in accordance with federal or state law.

CRMP is not responsible for the contents or accuracy of material posted when a CRMP representative is using social media in a personal capacity.  Publication of such content on a personal social media site does not constitute an endorsement by CRMP. CRMP representatives acting in a personal capacity should do everything reasonably practicable to make certain that it does not appear to other social media users or the public that they are speaking for CRMP.

The CRMP Governing Board shall keep their social media presence separate from that of CRMP-run social media sites, and from that of other CRMP Board members.  The CRMP Governing Board should be wary of sharing opinions on matters that will require CRMP Governing Board approval, and should refrain from communicating on social media with other Governing Board members on items that will require CRMP Governing Board approval.

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