Our social media channels are important places where we provide information and support for deaf people and those with hearing loss or tinnitus. We love that we can share our work with you and that you can share your stories and opinions with us, while also finding support and understanding from others in the community.
It’s important to us that our social media channels are a safe place for debate and conversation. We want to make sure that we treat everyone with respect and understand that everyone’s experience of hearing loss and tinnitus is different. Healthy debates are natural, but kindness is required.
Our guidelines
We’re all in this together to create a welcoming and respectful online community.
To make this possible, we kindly ask everyone to follow our guidelines while using our social media channels:
- Be respectful and kind of people’s opinions and experiences.
- Be willing to agree to disagree and move on.
- Do not post any content that includes hate speech, bullying or harassment.
- Do not post anything that may cause offence on the grounds of an individual’s gender, race, religion or belief, ethnic or national origin, sexual orientation, gender status, age, marital, working status, disability or form of hearing loss, tinnitus or deafness.
- Do not post adverts for commercial products or services.
- Do not post repeatedly about issues that are off-topic.
- Do not post anything that could be libellous or defamatory. If an accusation is made against a named person, for example at a member of staff at a service, we will hide it. Please send us a private message if you wish to discuss an incident with a named individual.
- Do not post any advertising or promote any services.
- Be transparent and honest.
- Keep private contact information, such as phone numbers and addresses, out of your posts.
How we moderate our channels
Our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram channels are moderated from 9am to 5pm on weekdays, with reduced hours on weekends and bank holidays.
How we enforce our guidelines
We will use our own discretion to hide or delete comments that go against our guidelines. If someone does not comply with our social media community rules they may be banned or blocked from interacting with our social media account. If anyone continues and uses techniques to bypass this functionality, they will be reported to the social media company for them to take action.
How we define hate speech and bullying
Hate speech
We define hate speech as a direct attack on people based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, caste, sex, gender, gender identity, disease, disability, deafness, hearing loss or tinnitus.
Bullying and harassment
We define bullying and harassment as repeatedly contacting someone in a manner that is unwanted or targeting anyone with malicious intent. For example, this could be attacking someone because they share a view that is different to your own.
Bullying and harassment can have a real emotional impact on people. It’s important to us that we all consider the human being on the other side of the keyboard.
Contact us
If you have any questions about our social media guidelines or see something that makes you feel uncomfortable, please get in touch at social.media@beta.rnid.org.uk