Terms of Use for social media.

Alameda Health System Social Media Policy – Public

I. PURPOSE

This policy outlines guidelines for public interaction with Alameda Health System (AHS) social media sites. AHS manages its official social media platforms to share accurate and relevant information about its services, initiatives, and community resources.

To maintain a respectful and informative environment, AHS reserves the right to moderate content and ensure that all interactions align with its mission and values, consistent with this Policy.

II. DEFINITIONS

As used in this policy, the following words and phrases shall have the following definitions.

  • Comment: Means and includes, but is not limited to, information, articles, pictures, videos or any other form of communicative content posted on an AHS social media site.
  • Social media: Includes any form of electronic communications or electronic information utilizing any form of networking environment, including but not limited to, all social networking forums or platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Pinterest, Tumblr, chat rooms, personal web sites, blogs and wikis.
  • Workforce members: Include employees, contracted staff, students, volunteers, medical staff, and individuals representing or working for AHS.

III. POLICY

All AHS social media sites shall be administered by the AHS Public Affairs and Community Engagement (PACE) Department. AHS will manage comments on its social media pages based on the following guidelines.

i. As a public entity, AHS must abide by certain standards to serve its community in a civil and unbiased manner.

ii. The intended purpose behind establishing AHS social media sites is to disseminate information from AHS, about AHS, to the community.

iii. Subject to constitutional considerations including the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, articles, comments, and posts containing any of the following inappropriate forms of content shall not be permitted on AHS social media sites and are subject to removal and/or restriction by AHS:

  1. Comments not related to the original topic, including random or unintelligible comments.
  2. Profane, obscene, violent, or pornographic content and/or language or sexual harassment.
  3. Content that promotes, fosters or perpetuates discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, age, religion, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, national origin, physical or mental abilities, status with regard to public assistance or other legally designated protected classification.
  4. Defamatory or personal attacks.
  5. Threats to any person or organization.
  6. Comments on topics or issues not within the jurisdictional purview of AHS may be removed.
  7. Making or publishing of false, vicious or malicious statements concerning any workforce member, AHS or its operations.
  8. Solicitation of commerce, including but not limited to advertising of any business or product for sale.
  9. Conduct in violation of any federal, state or local law.
  10. Encouragement of illegal activity.
  11. Information that may tend to compromise the safety or security of the public or public systems.
  12. Content that violates a legal ownership interest, such as a copyright, of any party.

iv. A comment posted by a member of the public on any AHS social media site is the opinion of the commentator or poster only, and publication of a comment does not imply endorsement of, or agreement by, AHS, nor do such comments necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of AHS.

v. AHS reserves the right to deny access to AHS social media sites for any individual who violates AHS’ Social Media Policy – Public, at any time and without prior notice.

vi. Workforce members’ use of social media must be in accordance with the AHS Social Media Networking and Other Web-based Communications – Internal Policy.

vii. This Social Media Policy – Public may be revised at any time.

IV. REFERENCES

[Mention relevant laws, regulations, or requirements, such as Joint Commission standards. Refer to regulatory organizations, including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and the American National Standards Institute, that offer guidance on the subject. Include citations of resources used to develop the policy. Cross-reference relevant documents from other organizations.]