Introduction
A clear Facebook comments policy is central to making sure everyone is aware of how they are expected to behave when engaging in your community’s online conversation.
Take some inspiration for your own comments policy from this example written by Jessie Mawson for Amnesty International Australia’s Facebook page.
Creating a Facebook comments policy will help your supporters understand what kind of behaviour is acceptable when participating in conversation on your organisation’s page. If everyone knows the rules, you can ensure that your Facebook community is the kind of place you want it to be.
Jessie Mawson manages social media for Amnesty International Australia, and has prepared an example that you can use as a basis for creating your own.
Example
Amnesty International – Facebook Page Comments Policy
Welcome to the Facebook page of Amnesty International Australia. We’re so glad you’re here! This is a place to participate in meaningful conversations about human rights. We won’t always agree with each other, and that’s okay. We encourage lively debate and a variety of opinions. At the same time, we expect members of this community to express themselves in a way that’s respectful and constructive.
Your comment may be removed if:
- It is racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise discriminatory or defamatory
- It is abuse, threatening, encourages violence or incites hatred
- It involves swearing, name-calling, personal attacks or other anti-social behaviour
- It includes video or images that our community may find distressing (graphic violence, pornography, etc)
- It is wildly off-topic, designed to sell something, or generally spammy (like the same comment posted repeatedly)
- It is written in a language other than English (we can’t always vouch for the suitability of these comments, so we’ll sometimes remove them to be on the safe side).
Repeated failure to stick to these rules may see you blocked from our page without warning.
(TL;DR: Please don’t be a jerk).
We understand that social media is a 24/7 medium — but our moderation capabilities are not. We may not see every dodgy post right away, so we trust our community to ignore inappropriate comments (or report them to Facebook by clicking the x in the top right-hand corner).
When inappropriate comments are deleted, so are all replies to that comment — so don’t waste your time arguing with rude people. Feel free to reach out with comments, concerns or feedback about this page.
Send us a direct message and we’ll do our best to respond in a helpful, timely manner. That said, specific or detailed enquiries (particularly regarding Amnesty membership) are best directed to our friendly supporter relations team.
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