Social Media Policy
Environment Southland’s community rules are publicly displayed on each Council social media channel and our website for users to refer to. The community rules are easily accessible and provide users with clear guidance and expectations on how our social media channels will be managed. This ensures our moderation process is fair and consistent for everyone.
Community Rules
Firstly, thank you for being part of our online community and participating in conversations with us. We share content that tells Murihiku Southland’s unique story through the people that live in the region and the work that Environment Southland does for now and the future.
We want to create an open, safe, and enjoyable experience for everyone interacting with our Council channels. To meet these expectations, we have community rules to help the Environment Southland communications team manage and moderate users' comments and activity.
Our community rules outline user behaviour and actions our team will not tolerate on our channel. If rules are breached, we have a one-strike policy, and we will take the necessary steps to manage the incident fairly and consistently for all users.
Remember, we are here to help. We will do our best to respond to your comments, queries, and constructive feedback.
If you see a te reo word or phrase we have used and don't know its meaning, you can ask us or head to www.maoridictionary.co.nz.
Please follow these community rules:
- Keep comments respectful. Do not post content that is threatening, abusive, hostile, offensive, indecent, racist or hateful.
- Respect privacy. Do not post comments that personally attack other people or disclose private information or details of elected members or staff, other Facebook users or individuals.
- Do not spam us. Repeating the same point repeatedly on the same or different posts is considered spam. We will leave your first comment but hide the duplicates. If you repeatedly spam us, we will send you a warning message advising you that you are breaking our community rules and, as a result, will be blocked if you continue this behaviour. Users who also post comments with third-party websites will also be reported as spam.
- Keep comments relevant to the Environment Southland page and threads. If comments go off-topic or become a conversation that breaches our community rules, we will first remind users of these rules. We will consider turning off comments if this doesn’t redirect the conversation.
- Misinformation/disinformation. Our community relies on our online information to be truthful and factual, and comments on our social media need to be the same. If we have corrected information in comments and the same comments are repeated, the comments will be removed, and a warning will be sent. Differences of opinion are okay, but knowingly sharing misinformation is not.
- Giveaways. Applicants must reside in the Murihiku Southland region to be eligible for our social media giveaways. We reserve the right to redraw applicants who do not meet thecriteria.
- Electioneering. Environment Southland digital channels must not be used for promotional or electioneering purposes. Any positive or negative post made by any individual specifically relating to their own – or someone else's – nomination, intention to stand for Council, or an election campaign will be removed immediately. This includes any posts from pages about an election.
We have a one-strike policy for users who breach our community rules. This means that once we have acknowledged the breach, the user will be privately messaged to inform them that they have breached our community rules and are receiving a warning. If there is another breach, they will be permanently blocked and unable to comment or message our page. If a user breaches these rules to an extreme standard, for example, breaching multiple rules at once, this may be grounds for being blocked immediately.
If any of these rules are unclear or you would like further information, please get in touch with the Environment Southland communications team at communications@es.govt.nz
Last updated: July 2025
