Social media terms of use and moderation policy

Terms of use and moderation policy for Corrections' social media accounts. Please direct all questions to media@corrections.govt.nz

Terms of use

Content

By following us on Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter, you can expect to see between two and seven posts each week (Monday to Sunday) about our work. We may also choose to share the work of other individuals or organisations, however, we do not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of this information.

We welcome feedback, however, we can’t guarantee that we will be able to reply to every post, tweet or message that we receive. We will ensure that helpful suggestions and enquiries are passed on to the relevant staff.

Monitoring

Corrections’ social media platforms are monitored 8am–5pm, Monday to Friday, however, we do endeavour to respond to urgent queries outside of these hours.

Questions and queries

We will attempt to answer questions within one working day. There are some topics that we won’t be able to discuss, such as when the matter is related to a confidential or sensitive operational or security matter, the subject of an investigation or is of a political nature. We might ask you to contact us via direct message to provide us with more detail in order for us to assist you.

Requests for official or personal information should be directed to info@corrections.govt.nz.

Media queries should be directed to media@corrections.govt.nz.

Privacy

When posting on Corrections social media platforms, please protect your personal privacy and that of others by not publishing personal information such as private addresses or phone numbers. Our social media pages are not secure channels as they are under the control of third parties. We encourage you to read each social media channel’s conditions of use and privacy policy.

Third parties

We may follow other organisations and individuals that are relevant to our work – please don’t be offended if we do not follow you back. Please let us know if there is an organisation that you think we should be following. Following does not imply Corrections’ endorsement, or guarantee the accuracy of the followed party’s information.

From time to time we share links to third-party websites. This does not mean we endorse all of the views expressed on third-party websites.

We also don’t necessarily endorse the views expressed by others on our social media channels.

Rules

If you follow us on Twitter, you are subject to the Twitter Terms of Service and Twitter Rules.

If you follow us on Facebook, you are subject to Facebook’s Terms of Service.

If you follow us on Instagram, you are subject to Instagram’s Terms of Use.

Security

You must not access or attempt to access our websites or online services through automated tools (including the use of scripts, web-crawlers, robots or screen-scrapers) or engage in any activity that will, or is likely to, interfere with or disrupt our websites or online services.

We provide security to protect our websites and online services. The security of our social media pages is governed by each social media channel's own conditions of use. You are responsible for making sure that your own computer is secure, including taking all reasonable steps to:

  • prevent someone misusing or getting unauthorised access to your computer system or to our online services, and
  • make sure your computer system and data are free of computer viruses and all other forms of corruption.

Disclaimer

The content promoted on our social media sites is only ever intended for information purposes only. Corrections will accept no liability for loss or damage suffered by any person or body due to information provided on these sites or linked sites.

The information on our social media sites is provided on the basis that the person accessing the website undertakes responsibility for assessing the relevance and accuracy of its content.

Our Terms of Use and moderation policy may be updated at any time without notice.

Facebook or Twitter (or other platforms) terms of use may also be updated according to those organisations’ terms of use.

Moderation policy

We encourage feedback, questions and discussion on our social media accounts but ask that you please respect others.

We may, at our discretion:

  • Determine what constitutes inappropriate content
  • Inform you if we remove or edit inappropriate content and give you the opportunity to post revised comments, and
  • Block users who breach our community guidelines or the terms and conditions of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or other social media platforms used by us.

***If you think particular behaviour or activity needs to be brought to our attention, direct message us.***

If we block you and you think we’ve made a mistake, you can contact media@corrections.govt.nz to seek an explanation.

Community guidelines

We want to make sure our social media pages are safe for everyone. To ensure that our social media platforms are used appropriately, we ask that people follow our community guidelines:

Be respectful

  • We won’t tolerate any comments that contain offensive, profane, defamatory, or threatening language, or which are otherwise inappropriate in a public forum.
  • Differences of opinion are okay, but comments containing personal attacks towards others, including our staff, will be removed.
  • If you notice any inappropriate activity, or you're being personally harassed, let us know by direct messaging us.

Don't break the law

  • Participating in, suggesting, or encouraging any illegal activity will result in you being blocked.
  • Don’t post any videos, images or text referencing criminal activity, or anything that breaches any court orders.
  • Don’t post content that breaches legislation, copyright or intellectual property rights beyond what is protected as fair use. Don't pretend to be other people, companies or brands.

Protect your own and others’ privacy

  • Never post personal or sensitive information – about you or others. This includes written information as well as photos and videos.
  • If we need any details from you, we’ll ask you to direct message us or email info@corrections.govt.nz. Personal information shared publicly will be moderated to protect your privacy, the privacy of the people we manage, and our staff.

Stay on topic

  • Comments and contributions should be relevant to the topic being discussed.
  • Posting the same (or similar) messages on either the same or different posts is considered spam. If this happens we will leave your first comment and remove the duplicates. Repeat offenders will be blocked.
  • The registration of multiple accounts for the purpose of trolling or harassing other users or with the intent to disrupt the flow of conversation is prohibited.
  • Don’t post advertisements or solicitations. If you have something that you think we might want to share, direct message us instead.