Social Media Commenting Guidelines

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Welcome to an official social media account sponsored by a department of Porter County Government. Our sponsored social media accounts and pages are a family-friendly outlet to promote our agency’s activities, events and programs. We encourage you to ask questions and share comments on content. Our social media team monitors Porter County Government social media accounts but is not responsible for content generated by users. We accept the majority of comments but are not obligated to respond to comments.

Our social media team generally monitor comments during the department’s normal business hours. If a request for service is posted outside of the department’s normal business hours, it mayl be responded to on the next business day. In the case of an emergency, users should contact 911. 

All content on Porter County Government social media accounts is subject to the Indiana Access To Public Records Act, the Freedom of Information Act, and applicable portions of other federal and state record retention laws. If you choose to comment on or send a message to a Porter County Government social media account, you should not expect or assume privacy. All comments and messages, including edited, hidden or deleted content is captured, archived and subject to Indiana Public Records Act and Freedom of Information Act requests.

We may hide and/or remove comments that include the following:

•    Obscene, profane, rude or vulgar language or images

•    Personal attacks or offensive terms that target specific individuals or groups

•    Threats or defamatory statements

•    Violent, hateful, discriminatory or racist language

•    Advocacy for any illegal activity

•    Off-topic comments, repetitive comments or spam

•    Outdated, inaccurate or misleading information

•    Promotion or opposition to political organizations, campaigns, candidates or pending legislative action.

•    Personal information, including but not limited to addresses and phone numbers

•    Web links to any site other than Porter County Government operated websites

•    Advertisements or solicitations of any kind

•    Infringement on copyrights or trademarks

•    Contests, raffles, sweepstakes and promotions

We do not discriminate against any views but reserve the right to hide and/or delete comments that violate the above policies or that are deemed inappropriate. The Porter County Government social media team reserves the right to close comments at any time on any or all of our social media sites. Repeated violations of our comment policy may cause the author to be blocked from Porter County Government sponsored social media accounts. To advise Porter County Government staff of a user violation of the above policy, please email curt.ellis@porterco.org or call (219) 465-3330 from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM, Monday through Friday.

If your comment is hidden or deleted, or you are blocked or banned from a Porter County Government social media site you have the right to appeal our decision in writing to Social Media Administrator, 155 Indiana Avenue, Suite 205, Valparaiso IN 46383