A. As a public entity the Village must comply with certain standards to serve all of its constituents in a civil and unbiased manner.
B. The Village's website and social media sites shall be considered limited public forums and, as such, the Village reserves the right to restrict or remove any content thereon that is deemed in violation of this policy established herein, the policies of any particular site used by the Village, or any applicable law.
C. Comments containing any of the following shall be and are considered inappropriate forms of content and shall not be permitted to be posted on the Village website and/or social media sites and are subject to immediate removal and/or restriction by the Village web coordinator or his or her designee based upon local community standards:
1. Comments not related to the original topic posted on said site, including random or unintelligible comments;
2. Profane, obscene, violent, or pornographic comments, content and/or language;
3. Content that promotes, fosters or perpetuates discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, age, religion, gender, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, national origin, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, or any other protected status;
4. Defamatory or personal attacks;
5. Threats to any person or organization;
6. Comments in support of, or in opposition to, any political campaigns or ballot measures;
7. Solicitation of commerce, including but not limited to advertising of any business or product for sale;
8. Conduct in violation of any Federal, State or local law;
9. Encouragement of illegal activity;
10. Information that may tend to compromise the safety or security of the public or public systems; or
11. Content that violates a legal ownership interest, such as a copyright, of any party;
12. Content or posts that contain external links to other sites for the purpose of spam, viruses, link-baits, click-throughs, or other deceptive practices.
D. The Village reserves the right to report any violation of applicable laws to the appropriate law enforcement agencies and other authorities that have applicable jurisdiction.
E. A comment posted by a member of the public on any Village 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, the Village, nor do such comments necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the Village, its officers, Trustees, employees, agents, or appointees.
F. The Village reserves the right to deny access to Village social media sites for any person or entity that violates this policy, at any time and without prior notice.
G. Neither the Village of Lake Barrington nor its elected and appointed officials, officers, employees, or agents endorse, recommend, or offer any opinions on the goods or services provided by any businesses or organizations posting on or linked to its Village website or to any Village social media site(s), and this disclaimer shall be posted on the Village website and on each Village social media site.
H. Employees representing the Village via social media outlets are and shall be required to conduct themselves at all times as professional representatives of the Village.
1. Employees of the Village are not permitted to use Village- branded social media outlets to influence or affect the results of any election or nomination.
2. When a Village employee responds to a comment, in his/her capacity as a Village employee, the employee's name and title should be made available as part of the comment or post, when possible.
3. Employees of the Village shall not share personal information about himself or herself, or other Village employees, elected officials, appointed board or commission members, or candidates for such positions.
4. Employees of the Village are and shall be prohibited from posting any privileged or confidential information.
5. Employees of the Village are and shall be prohibited from posting any information related to any commercial product, business, venture, partnership or other entity in which such employee holds an interest, for the purpose of selling or promoting such interest.
I. All comments posted to any Village social media site(s) are bound by those particular site's rules, regulations, rights, and responsibilities, and the Village reserves the right to report any violation of those rules, regulations, rights and responsibilities to the social media site with the intent of that site to take appropriate and reasonable responsive action. (Ord. 2017-O-16, 9-5-2017)