Social media moderation policy

Version 1.1

This document is intended to act as a guideline for all Irish Cancer Society staff when engaging in moderation of user-generated communications and content which has been posted on the Society's social media profiles: currently including (but not limited to) Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Flickr.

Social media profiles:

Social media profiles have been created by the Irish Cancer Society (ICS) to promote dialogue on matters concerning cancer and related topics, and to promote the work of the Society. However, the comments, opinions and views expressed on the profiles do not necessarily represent the views of the Society, the Board of Directors nor its patrons.

While the administrators and moderators of the profiles will attempt to remove or edit any generally objectionable material as quickly as possible, it is impossible to moderate content 24 hours a day. Therefore it is acknowledged that all posts made to these profiles express the views and opinions of the author and not the administrators, moderators or webmaster (except for posts by these people), and hence the Society will not be held liable.

The Webmaster of the ICS, together with the Communications Manager of the ICS, is the moderator and administrator of the social media profiles.

Posts to social media profiles may be published immediately, but the ICS retain the right to edit or remove any objectionable material at any time.

Guidelines on ‘Terms of use’ and ‘Privacy Policy’ are available upon request.

Questions in relation to all aspects of the moderation of the Society's social media profiles should be directed to webmaster@cancer.ie.

If user-generated content is posted on a social media profile that warrants a response from the ICS, then the guidelines for moderation as outlined in the remainder of this document should be followed.

Video and/or image user-generated content guidelines for moderation:

If the acting Irish Cancer Society moderator interprets user-generated video and/or image content to contain any of the following, then that content should be removed from the Society's social media profile immediately:

1. Obscene gestures
2. Sexual gestures
3. Extreme rude language
4. Substance abuse (tobacco, alcohol, drugs)
5. Racist and/or Xenophobic comments
6. Sexist comments
7. Appearance of branded products (where another brand may appear in a negative association)
8. Nudity
9. Bullying/abuse directed towards other users, or the Irish Cancer Society
   1. Weapons
   2. Affiliation with organised crime (gang symbols, tattoos)
   3. Threats of violence
   4. Criminal and/or illegal activity
   5. Advertising/spam
   6. Defamatory statements
   7. Any other content prohibited by Irish law

Text-based user-generated content guidelines for moderation:

If the acting Irish Cancer Society moderator interprets user-generated text-based content to contain any of the following, then that content should be removed from the Society's social media profile immediately:

1. Obscene emotes/comments
2. Sexual emotes/comments
3. Extreme rude language
4. Promotion of substance abuse (tobacco, alcohol, drugs)
5. Racist and/or Xenophobic comments
6. Sexist comments
7. References to branded products (where another brand may appear in a negative association)
8. References to nudity
9. Bullying/abuse directed towards other users, or the Irish Cancer Society
10. References to weapons
11. Comments which show affiliation to/with organised crime
12. Threats of violence
13. Comments which reference criminal and/or illegal activity
14. Advertising/spam/links
15. Defamatory statements
16. Any other content prohibited by Irish law

Furthermore, the ICS may remove any text or non-text submission that is irrelevant to, or that disrupts the intended purpose of, the topic at hand.

Explanatory text:

When user-generated communications and content is removed or edited, the following explanatory text (or similar) is to be posted onto the Society's social media platform:

“Could we ask that replies should be kept relevant to the specific post? Also, please keep replies civil and respectful. We reserve the right to delete irrelevant or inflammatory replies. All posts on our profile which are not directly relevant to the topic at hand will be deleted. This is about keeping our profile relevant and of interest to our supporters. Thank you.”

Sexual predators:

At all times moderators should be vigilant towards sexual predators: any adult men and/or women behaving in an inappropriate fashion towards non-adults, who are interacting with the Society's social media platforms, should be blocked and reported immediately.