Social Media Posting Policy
This policy applies to all social media sites maintained by the City of Newport News and its departments
The purpose of City of Newport News social media sites is to present matters of public interest in Newport News. Followers of the City of Newport News are encouraged to submit questions, comments, and concerns related to the matter presented or to the business of the City/Department, but please note that this is a moderated online discussion site. Visitor comments expressed on this site do not reflect the opinion and position of the City of Newport News government or its officers and employees.
Here is our Posting Policy for participation to encourage civil discourse. The following are prohibited:
- threats of physical or bodily harm, or incitement of actions that would harm others;
- content which constitutes, incites, promotes, or encourages illegal activity;
- submission of personally identifiable medical information;
- defamatory statements;
- obscene, profane, or vulgar language;
- content that includes or constitutes sexually explicit content, obscenity, or child pornography;
- solicitations of commerce and commercial product promotions;
- spam, links to other sites, chain letters, pyramid schemes or fraudulent or deceptive messages;
- content that violates copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property rights; and
- comments that are clearly off topic of the City social media post being commented upon, or beyond the scope of the subject matter of the social media page.
The Department of Communications will have the final say in interpreting these rules. The City reserves the right to reject, delete, disable or remove any content that does not comply with this Posting Policy. Content in violation of this Posting Policy will be removed by the City. In such an event, the person who submitted the post will be notified that the post has been removed for violating the City’s Posting Policy. Repeated violations will result in a 30-day suspension from that City social media page. Any additional violation(s) within the 12-month period following any suspension may result in a longer-term suspension. Individuals wishing to challenge such a removal or suspension can contact the Department of Communications at communications@nnva.gov.