Navy Social Media Acceptable Use Policy

Introduction

The Royal Australian Navy (hereafter referred to as 'Navy') utilises a number of popular social media platforms which enables us to communicate and interact with a significant number of our audience where ever they may be.

The social media platforms that Navy currently uses are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

Review, Moderation and Reporting

Navy social media personnel continually monitor and when necessary moderate activity on all of our social media accounts. Posting of content and responding to comments and replies will predominately occur during weekday business hours of 7:00am to 5:00pm. During special events or increased periods of activity due to a strategic communication campaign, this moderation schedule may change.

If you become aware of inappropriate or offensive comments, in the first instance please use the social media platform's reporting process. As Navy's social media platforms are verified accounts, these reports are prioritised for review and if necessary, the appropriate action.

If you become aware of any illegal online activity, please take screenshots and report the matter immediate to your local police.

Further information is available on each platform's Help Centre.

Policy and Directives

Defence personnel must read and understand the Defence Communication Manual, and Navy Directive 04/2018 - Establishment and Maintenance of Official Navy Digital and Social Media Presences and before posting anything online including social media platforms. These documents are available for download via the Defence Protected Network.

Acceptable Use Policy

This user policy is in addition to any user policy or terms and conditions imposed by the social media platform.

As a user of any of the social media platforms utilised by the Navy, you may express your views, comments, ideas, insights, and criticisms about the content posted by the Navy. At the same time, you must show courtesy and respect to others and must not use the social media platform to abuse others, expose others to offensive or inappropriate content, or for any unlawful purpose.

The Navy reserves the right to enforce this Acceptable Use Policy at its discretion. The Navy may remove any posted messages that it considers to be in breach of this policy, or for any other reason. The Navy may also block, ban or remove you as a user if it considers that you have breached this policy.

The Navy may change this policy at any time.

Acceptable Content

When using any of the social media platforms utilised by Navy, please ensure that you:

  • protect your personal privacy and that of others by not including personal information in your comments/replies e.g. email addresses, private addresses or phone numbers)
  • protect the safety of our personnel in the Australian Defence Force by not tagging, labelling or mentioning people, locations and dates of personnel currently serving on Operations, unless the post has been cleared by the Department of Defence
  • represent your own views and not impersonate or falsely represent any other person
  • do not be abusive, harass or threaten others
  • do not make defamatory or libellous comments
  • do not use insulting, provocative or hateful language
  • do not use obscene or offensive language
  • do not use words or sentences in languages other than English
  • do not post gifs
  • do not post emoticons/emojis without words or sentences appropriate to the content
  • do not post material to the wall that infringes the intellectual property rights of others
  • do not post multiple versions of the same comment/reply or make excessive postings on a particular issue
  • do not promote commercial interests in your posts
  • do not make unproven or unsupported accusations against individuals or organisations
  • do not use any imagery that violates copyright or breaches a license agreement
  • do not use any images or link to sites that may be considered abusive, offensive, indecent or obscene
  • do not encourage conduct that may constitute a criminal offence or give rise to civil liability, or that otherwise violates any local, provincial, national or international law or regulation anywhere in the world
  • do not incite hatred on the basis of any personal characteristic, including on the basis of race, gender, marital or domestic status, disability, sexuality or age
  • do not identify matters that are currently the subject of legal proceedings or would break a court’s non-publication order
  • do not make comments that are irrelevant to the topic being discussed.

Privacy Statement

The Navy may record information posted to any of the Navy's social media platforms and use that information for the purpose of administering its presence, considering and/or addressing any comments/replies made and archiving.

The Navy may identify individuals who have posted on any of the Navy's social media platforms, where authorised or required by law, or for the purpose of assisting or conducting an investigation. This may include, but is not limited to, a complaint of unacceptable behaviour, investigations under the Defence Force Discipline Act, or investigations by civilian authorities.

The Navy is not responsible for the privacy practices or content of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn or any linked websites.

Disclaimer

While the Navy's presence on social media platforms is regularly updated, the Navy accepts no responsibility for the accuracy, currency and completeness of any information posted on these platforms or its relevance and suitability for any purpose.

The Navy accepts no responsibility for material on any of the Navy's social media platforms that has been posted by user or contributor who is not working in an official capacity for the Navy or the Department of Defence. The Navy does not endorse or otherwise support any view and opinion posted by said user or contributor.

The Navy may, from time to time, post links to other websites such as providing information about upcoming events that may be of interest to our online audience. However, such links are posted for convenience only and do not constitute an endorsement of material at those sites, or any associated events, organisations, products or services.

Other users of the Navy's social media platforms may also post links about Navy non-operational activities and events. While the Navy makes reasonable efforts to ensure inappropriate material is identified and appropriately moderated, it cannot and does not guarantee that inappropriate material will not be published. The publication of posted links and other content does not imply any endorsement, agreement or acceptance by the Navy. The Navy recommends that users exercise their own skill and care with respect to such content and that they carefully evaluate the accuracy, currency, completeness, relevance and appropriateness of content for their purposes.

The Navy accepts no legal liability whatsoever arising from, or connected to:

  • the publication of links to events or other content
  • any failure to moderate inappropriate content (whether due to technical error or otherwise)
  • or the use of, or reliance on, any links or other content posted by a user on the Navy's Facebook social media platforms.

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