Social Media Comments Policy


(En Español)

We welcome you and your comments!

The purpose of official Fairfax County social media accounts is to present matters of public interest. We encourage you to submit your questions, comments, and concerns, but please note these are moderated online discussion sites.

We recognize social media is a 24/7 medium, and your comments are welcome at any time. However, given the need to manage our staff resources (your tax dollars), we generally only monitor comments and postings during regular business hours.

Fairfax County reserves the right to remove comments that contain:

  1. Vulgar, profane or obscene language and/or images
  2. Personal attacks of any kind
  3. Comments or content that promote, foster, or perpetuate discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, age, religion, gender, marital status, genetics, status with regard to public assistance, national origin, physical or intellectual disability or sexual orientation
  4. Spam/repeated comments
  5. Clearly off topic from the original post
  6. Promotion of particular commercial services and/or products
  7. Links to websites
  8. Images or videos
  9. Illegal activity
  10. Copyright or trademark infringement
  11. Personally identifiable medical information
  12. Information that may compromise the safety, security or proceedings of public systems or any criminal or civil investigations

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Closing comments: Fairfax County reserves the right to close comments at any time as social media platforms permit.

Banning: If there are three or more comment violations by one user per county account, then Fairfax County reserves the right to ban user participation on that county account if platforms permit banning.

Platform rules: Social media platforms may take their own action to remove comments or ban users based on the platforms’ policies, not Fairfax County. Fairfax County is not responsible for those actions.

Platform assistance: Fairfax County reserves the right to utilize select automated tools provided by some social media platforms to assist with managing comments.

Video disclaimer: Fairfax County is not responsible for the content provided on “related” and “promoted” videos that are accessible from social media video channels. All viewers should note that these related videos and comments expressed on them do not necessarily reflect the opinions and position of the Fairfax County or its officers and employees.

Archiving: All posts and comments are archived, including deleted comments.

Private messages: Many social media platforms provide a non-public way to contact official Fairfax County social media accounts, however, those conversations are public records and subject to Virginia Freedom of Information Act requests.

Redress process: If you think Fairfax County took action wrongfully regarding your comments or participation on Fairfax County social media accounts, you may petition Fairfax County for review by contacting socialmedia@fairfaxcounty.gov .

Updated Jan. 3, 2023

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