Sandwell Council's Facebook rules
We use Facebook to tell you about Sandwell Council services, to share news stories and important messages - such as weather warnings, school closures and gritting information.
We also want our Facebook pages to be somewhere where you can ask questions and have a conversation.
We want you to use Facebook to discuss Sandwell as an area, to tell us what you're up to and to ask the council for advice - we're here to help!
We also want our Facebook pages to be places to have a conversation - and if you can help someone who has a question, feel free to get involved.
There is the main Sandwell Facebook page - and many other council services and teams also use Facebook.
These rules apply to all of our council Facebook pages.
Facebook - A few rules
We want you to have your say and we do not censor comments - even if they are critical of the council.
But we do have some rules that we expect everyone to follow and will remove posts that don't keep to these rules.
Please respect others
We really encourage you to comment on our Facebook pages.
However, we do not tolerate bullying. Anybody making abusive, disruptive or offensive comments will be blocked from posting on the page.
No swearing - please keep it clean!
We will remove posts containing swearing - we don't want it on our page and other people don't want to read it. We know some people have strong feelings on issues that we chat about on Facebook, but please get your point across without using bad language.
Please keep it friendly
We know that not everyone will agree with one another all of the time and we welcome debate on our Facebook pages. But we will remove, without notice, anything that we consider to be libellous.
Sorry - we don't allow commercial advertising
We are happy to promote council services, partner organisations, voluntary groups or charities connected to the council on the our Facebook pages.
However, we cannot accept links, comments or wall posts promoting private businesses, such as shops or restaurants.
All Sandwell businesses are urged to visit the Sandwell Business Growth website - which is packed with advice for Sandwell businesses.
Politics
We reserve the right to remove political comments made on our Facebook pages.
This is particularly important in the run up to elections, when councils have to be very careful not to do or say anything that appears to favour a particular political party or candidate. No political comments, campaigning or anything that could be considered as such are permitted specifically during any pre-election period.
Monitoring
Facebook is not monitored 24/7.
We will remove any content that doesn't meet with our guidelines as soon as we see it.