Terms and Conditions for Social Media

From: Parole Board of Canada

Third-Party Social Media

The Parole Board of Canada’s use of social media serves as an extension of its presence on the Web. Social media account(s) are public and are not hosted on Government of Canada servers. Users who choose to interact with us via social media should read the terms of service and privacy policies of these third-party service providers and those of any applications you use to access them. The Parole Board uses Twitter and YouTube.

Interacting with us on social media

This notice has been written to explain how the Parole Board of Canada interacts with the public on social media platforms.

Your engagement with the Parole Board of Canada via social media is in part governed by the Terms of Service/Use of the relevant third-party social media platform providers, as well as the following Terms and Conditions. We have no control over the social media platform providers’ Terms of Service/Use, but you are strongly encouraged to read them in addition to those that follow.

Content and frequency

The Parole Board uses social media accounts as an alternative method of sharing the content posted on our website and interacting with our stakeholders in an informative and respectful environment.

Because social media platforms and their computer servers are managed by a third party, social media accounts are subject to downtime that may be out of our control. We, therefore, accept no responsibility for platforms becoming unresponsive or unavailable.

We understand that social media is a 24/7 medium, and your comments are welcome at any time. You should expect to see new content posted Monday to Friday from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm EST/EDT. Comments submitted after hours or on weekends will be read as early as possible the next business day.

Links to other websites and ads

Social media accounts may post or display links or ads for websites that are not under our control. These links are provided solely for the convenience of users. The government is not responsible for the information found through these links or ads; neither does it endorse the sites or their content.

“Following”, “liking” and “subscribing”

The Parole Board of Canada’s decision to “follow”, “like” or “subscribe” to another social media account does not imply an endorsement of that account, channel, page or site, and neither does sharing (re-tweeting, reposting or linking to) content from another user.

Comments and interaction

The Parole Board of Canada will read comments and participate in discussions when appropriate. We ask that your comments be relevant and respectful.

We will not engage in partisan or political issues or respond to questions that violate these Terms and Conditions.

We reserve the right to remove comments, and to block users based on the following criteria:

The comments:

• Contain personal information;
• Are contrary to the principles of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms;
• Express racist, hateful, sexist, homophobic or defamatory messages, or contain or refer to any obscenity or pornography;
• Put forward serious, unproven or inaccurate accusations against individuals or organizations;
• Are threatening, violent, intimidating or harassing of any nature;
• Constitute impersonation, advertising or spam;
• Encourage illegal activity;
• Are written in a language other than English or French;
• Are unintelligible or irrelevant;
• Do not, in our opinion, add to the normal flow of a discussion; or
• Otherwise violate this notice.

Please be respectful and make sure your comments are relevant to where they are posted. The views of users commenting on our social media accounts do not necessarily represent the views of the Parole Board or the Government of Canada.

The Parole Board of Canada reserves the right to report users and/or their comments and contributions to third-party social media service providers to prevent or remove the posting of content that is contrary to these Terms and Conditions, or to the Terms of Service/Use of the third-party social media platform.

Accessibility of social media platforms

Social media platforms are third-party service providers and are not bound by Government of Canada standards for web accessibility.

Copyright

Information that we post is subject to the Copyright Act.

Privacy

Our social media accounts are not Government of Canada websites and represent only our presence on third-party service providers.

Official languages

Many social media platforms have multiple language options and provide instructions on how to set your preferences. The Government of Canada respects the Official Languages Act and is committed to ensuring that our information is available in both French and English and that both versions are of equal quality.

We reply to comments in the official language in which they are posted. If we think the response is a question of general public interest, we may respond in both official languages.

We may share links that direct users to sites of organizations or other entities that are not subject to the Official Languages Act and available only in the language(s) in which they are written. When content is available in only one language, we make an effort to provide similar content in the other official language.

Questions and Media Requests

Our social media channels are intended to share news and information with the public about our programs. They are not intended to serve as a reporting mechanism for issues such as criminal activity, misconduct, wrongdoing, etc. Information of this nature should be reported to your local police department.

Reporters are asked to send questions to our Media Enquiries Contacts.