Social Media House Rules

This page sets out our house rules across all our accounts, channels on social media, and on sites where we engage with the public.

Our social media channels

Our social media channels feature a variety of information, news, and alerts about our services and facilities, as well as from our partner organisations. They are an important way for us to keep you informed and up to date with what is happening across Ards and North Down. Our channels also allow you, our residents, to get in touch and share your views and experiences.

Find us online at:

In addition to the above corporate channels, we also manage:

We cannot reply to every message or comment we receive, but we will do our best to help. We deal with a high volume of queries and feedback, and we aim to respond to you, where a response is required, as soon as we can.

Please note that comments, feedback, and suggestions on our social media are regularly passed to the relevant service areas within Council for consideration.

Our social media team

Our replies are not automated, and there are real people operating our social media sites. Please remember to be kind. Anyone who is repeatedly rude and/or aggressive to members of our team - or other site users - will be banned from commenting and posting on our channels.

We are here to help, and we expect users to offer us the same level of courtesy and respect that we offer to them. We want our social media channels to be safe spaces for staff, elected members, and residents, where we welcome comments and engagement on our posts. We offer and expect the same level of respect in speaking to us online as in person.

Please note, our working hours are 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday and social media posts are not actively monitored in evenings, weekends and on Bank Holidays.

House Rules

We are happy to help you in any way that we can and look forward to seeing your views and feedback.

We do not, however, have large social media teams monitoring our social media channels, so the following information will help you know what to expect from us.

Contacting us through social media - direct messages

For direct messages, during working hours, we will do our best to respond to your enquiry within four working hours.

Outside working hours (Mon-Fri 9am to 5pm) we will acknowledge or answer enquiries as soon as possible.

If we cannot answer your enquiry straight away, we will let you know that we are asking the relevant service area for the information. We try to get this within 24 hours of your initial enquiry, but it can sometimes take longer if the right people are not available.

Sometimes it is better for you to talk to the service directly, particularly when your enquiry is about a serious, urgent, or personal matter. In these cases, we will give you contact information.

Comments on Council social media posts

We expect those commenting on Council social media posts to comply with each social media platform's Terms of Use or Community Standards, as well as our own House Rules detailed below.

We reserve the right to hide or delete comments, without notification, and report or block users who post messages which we believe:

bully, harass, intimidate or are discriminatory towards any individual or organisation
are unlawful, libellous, defamatory, abusive, threatening, harmful, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, or racially offensive
infringe or violate someone else's rights
share personal information including names, addresses, contact details or any information that could identify someone without their consent (doxxing)
violate the law or that discuss on-going legal proceedings
are spam: the same message (or small variations of it) posted multiple times by individuals or groups
are factually incorrect or untrue statements
are controversial, irrelevant or off-topic, including persistently posting negative and/or abusive comments & posts where the aim is to provoke a response (trolling)
are disruptive or use foul language
are repetitive
promote links to external websites or non-Council promotions

We will also remove or ban any user who:

continues to post comments such as those listed above
encourages others to post such comments
has an offensive username

We reserve the right to take action where we consider comments to be in breach of these rules. Actions can include:

hiding your comment
deleting your comment
reporting your comment to a platform for breaking its community standards
banning commenters from our channel on a temporary basis
permanently banning commenters from our channel
reporting your comment to law enforcement bodies

At times, we may choose to restrict comments on a post. This may be done when comments on a post are becoming repetitive, abusive, or posters are breaking House Rules. This may also, on occasion, be done on posts that are scheduled to be published outside of office hours, when Council officers are not available to monitor/moderate comments.

Monitoring, moderation, and transparency

We are committed to maintaining a safe, respectful, and transparent environment across our social media channels. To achieve this, we follow clear guidelines for monitoring, moderation, and accountability:

our social media accounts are monitored 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays
we aim to respond to queries as soon as possible, but urgent issues should be reported via telephone: 0300 013 3333 or to our Customer Services team email: enquiries@ardsandnorthdown.gov.uk
if your comment is removed, it is because we believe it has broken at least one of the House Rules
if you see a post on our channels from a member of the public which you think severely breaches our House Rules, please report it to the social media channel directly
depending upon the content, we may also screenshot the posts and consider legal action or send them to the police for investigation

Posts breaching our House Rules may be retained for investigation or legal compliance.

Customer Service, Service Requests and Complaints

We do not offer council services via direct message. Please use official channels for service requests: report online, Report - Ards and North Down Borough Council, telephone 0300 013 3333 or email Customer Services team at enquiries@ardsandnorthdown.gov.uk

In line with the Council's Complaints Procedure, social media should not be used for formal complaints. If you feel that a council service has not been properly delivered or have a complaint about a councillor or member of staff, you can make an official complaint.

You can find more details on our website at Complaints, Compliments and Comments - Ards and North Down Borough Council

Posts making allegations may be removed or directed to the complaints process. Posts discussing legal proceedings or naming staff in complaints or allegations may be removed to protect privacy and legal integrity.

Media/Political Requests

Our social media platforms are not intended to be used by the media or politicians to contact us. If you fall into this category, you should contact our Corporate Communications team directly who will help you.

Impartiality and Endorsement

A like, share or follow from our accounts does not imply endorsement of any individual, organisation or content.

Updates to House Rules

These House Rules are not exhaustive, and we will review them regularly. We may update these rules at any time to reflect best practice or changes to policy.

Thank you for helping us keep our social media channels safe and respectful for everyone to use.