Social Media Public Use Policy

The Town of Hilton Head Island participates in social media to reach a broader audience, disseminate information and interact with residents, businesses and visitors.

• We encourage your comments, ideas and suggestions through our social media sites and look forward to an active exchange of ideas.
• All viewpoints are welcome, but comments should remain relevant to the topic at hand, not use profanity, not make unsupported allegations and should not include spam.
• Please note that theTown's social media sites are moderated online discussion sites and not a public forum.

Social media sites are not to be used to report criminal activity or emergencies.

• If you have an emergency please call 9-1-1.
• If you have information for law enforcement, please contact the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office.
• The Town of Hilton Head Island social media sites will not constitute an official form of communication for legal notice, specific requests for service, public record requests or registering a complaint.

Public Records

Any content maintained in social media format which is related to Town business, including a list of subscribers, posted communication and communication submitted for posting may be a public record subject to publicdisclosure.

Disclaimer

1. Posts and Comments
1. All posted content (comments, photos, links, etc.) must be related to the article or post regarding Town programs, services, projects, issues, events or activities. If the social media site has an "Off Topic" feature/category, comments may be posted as long as they conform to the comment policy.
2. The Town of Hilton Head Island social media sites do not constitute an official form of communication for legal notice, specific requests for service, public records requests, registering a complaint or to report criminal activity.
3. Members of the media are asked to send questions to the Town of Hilton Head Island through their normal channels and refrain from submitting questions on social media as comments.
4. The Town reserves the right to remove comments/postings which violates any local, state, or federal law regarding discrimination, harassment, or violence. In addition comments and postings will be removed it they contain vulgar language, personal attacks, or disparaging comments of any kind, or offensive comments that target or disparage any ethnic, racial, or religious group. Further, the Town reserves the right to remove comments solely at its discretion, containing, but not limited to, any of the following elements:
1. Profane, obscene, abusive or threatening language, defamatory statements or contain pornographic content and/orlanguage;
2. Content that promotes, fosters, or perpetuates discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, age, religion, gender, ational origin, physical or mental disability or sexual orientation;
3. Personal attacks, hate speech or offensive terminology targeting individuals or groups of individuals;
4. Sexual content or links to sexual content;
5. Promotion or encouragement of illegal activity;
6. Information that my compromise the safety or security of the public or public systems;
7. Unsolicited business proposals or endorsements/promotion of commercial services, products or entities;
8. Infringements of copyrights, trademarks or other intellectual property;
9. Endorsements of political parties, candidates, groups or campaigns;
10. Comments/posts; unrelated to the original topic;
11. Spam or links to other sites;
12. Personally identifiable information.
2. References, Links and Embedded Content
1. Any references or links to a specific entity, product, service or organization posted by individuals on the Town of Hilton Head Island's social media sites should not be considered an endorsement by the Town of Hilton Head Island or its departments, officials or employees.
2. The Town of Hilton Head Island does not review, sponsor, or endorse any other websites linked to this website or social media account. The views and opinions of authors, expressed on those websites do not necessarily state or reflect the opinion of the Town of Hilton Head Island and may not be quoted or reproduced for the purpose of stating or implying any endorsement or approval of any product, person, or service.
3. The Town of Hilton Head Island is not responsible for and does not guarantee the authenticity, accuracy, appropriateness, nor security of the link, external website or its content,unless the link goes directly to the Town of Hilton Head Island's official website.
4. The Town of Hilton Head Island reserves the right to delete links posted by individuals that violate the Town's social media policy.
3. Public Records
1. Subject to certain statutory exceptions, most documents and records maintained by the Town of Hilton Head Island, including but not limited to electronic records, are public records under South Carolina law.
2. Any content maintained in a social media format which is related to Town business, including but not limited to list of subscribers, posted comments and information submitted for posting may be a public record subject to public disclosure.
3. Content submitted for posting that is deemed not suitable for posting by a Town of Hilton Head Island moderator, shall be retained pursuant to the records retention schedule along with a description of the reason the specific content is deemed not suitable.
4. Privacy
1. All users of the Town of Hilton Head Island social media sites are subject to the site's own privacy policy. The Town of Hilton Head Island has no control over a third party's privacy policy or their modifications to it. The Town of Hilton Head Island makes no claim to protect or preserve the privacy of users who interact with Town employees or representatives of the Town via Town-sponsored social media sites beyond those protections which the site owner provides.
2. To protect your own privacy and the privacy of others, please do not include personal information, such as your Social Security number, phone numbers or email addresses in your comments.
5. Copyright Policy
1. Unless a copyright is indicated, information on the Town of Hilton Head Island web site is in the public domain and may be reproduced, published or otherwise used with the Town of Hilton Head Island's permission. We request only that the Town of Hilton Head Island be cited as the source of information and that any photo credits, graphics or byline be similarly credited to the photographer, author or Town of Hilton Head Island, as appropriate.
2. The Town of Hilton Head Island follows all applicable copyright laws and no infringed material may be posted or linked to on the Town of Hilton Head Island page.
3. Any use of the Town of Hilton Head Island seal or logo is prohibited without written permission from the Town of Hilton Head Island.
4. Content that violates a legal ownership interest of any other party or copyright should not be posted or submitted in any form without permission of the rights holder. Any person redistributing information subject to a third party copyright via the Town's social media sites must adhere to the terms and conditions of the third party copyright holder.
6. Disclaimers
1. The Town of Hilton Head Island does not guarantee that any information posted by the members of the public, or employees who are not designated as content providers, is correct and it does not assume liability for any inaccuracies, loss or damage resulting from reliance on any such information posted on social media sites by any unauthorized person(s).
2. The Town of Hilton Head Island does not guarantee that the social media sites will be uninterrupted, permanent or error-free.
3. The Town of Hilton Head Island reserves the right to modify this policy at any time. All modifications will be posted. Continued use of Town of Hilton Head Island social media sites following the posting of any modification to the policy signifies acceptance of such modification.
4. The Town reserves the right to terminate any portion of the Town social media site at any time.

If you have any questions concerning the on of this official Town social media site, please contact the Communications Department at communications@hiltonheadislandsc.gov.