Social media acceptable use

Kingston Council has social media accounts on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Nextdoor, WhatsApp, X and YouTube. 

We use these platforms to share important information, advice and news with our residents and communities. You can follow us on these accounts to keep up to date with what’s going on across the borough and share your thoughts. 

We welcome your comments and suggestions on the issues discussed on our social media channels. We have some simple rules we ask you to follow. 

Comments should be civil, tasteful and relevant to the topic being discussed.

Any abusive or threatening posts are not acceptable on any of our platforms. 

We’ll take immediate action if content posted is: 

• Abusive or threatening
• Slanderous, defamatory, malicious or false
• Intimidating towards our staff, elected members or other users
• Discriminatory in any way - including racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, ageist or ableist 
• Incites hatred - see more information on our hate crime page
• promotes illegal activity
• the same message posted multiple times, otherwise known as 'spamming'

Action on unacceptable posts

If your content relates to the list above, we may hide or delete it, block your access, or may consider legal action if appropriate. If you are blocked from interacting with the council online and believe the action taken is unfair you can visit our Feedback, complaints and complements page. 

Complaints and allegations of misconduct

We take any allegations of misconduct against council officers and elected members very seriously. If you make any such allegations on our social media accounts we’ll ask you to report it to the most appropriate body so that it can be fully investigated. Any posts will be removed whilst the allegations are being investigated.

If you have any feedback to share with the council or want to make a cpomlaint, you can visit our Feedback, complaints and complements page.

Safeguarding allegations

If you make any safeguarding allegations or disclosures on our social media accounts, these will be passed onto the relevant organisations to be properly investigated. Any posts relating to safeguarding issues will be removed while they are being investigated. It is better to raise these concerns directly with us via our safeguarding adults and safeguarding children pages.

Hours

Our social media pages are monitored regularly Monday to Friday and when necessary over weekends and bank holidays, for example during any major incidents.

We will not be able to respond to questions or complaints outside of these hours, even if we are posting from our accounts. If you have an urgent query please use the council’s contact us page.