City adopts new social media policy

Speech lives forever online and in the era of digital media. Text messages, Facebook posts, Tweets, incriminating photos and online comments and forums have defamed professional athletes, politicians and the average Joe who is just trying to find a job.

The new media landscape is vast, ever-changing and hard to regulate, which is why the city of West Linn recently adopted a new social media policy. The policy drew upon concepts from the city of Portland and the Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue policies and does not apply to an employee’s personal use of social media during non-work or after work hours.

Assistant City Manager Kirsten Wyatt said the policy was not prompted from an incident or inappropriate behavior by a city employee or volunteer using social media.

“We wanted to be forward thinking in our approach to social media,” Wyatt said. “The policy was developed so city employees and volunteers have rules and regulations to follow when using the city’s various online tools. It’s important for the city to use social media tools to communicate public affairs and share information quickly with a large group of people.”

According to the city’s last survey, 95 percent of West Linn residents access the Internet and 63 percent have a social media account. Which is why the city has also just launched a new communication plan and one-stop website, westlinnpride.com, in another effort to stay in touch with local residents and interact with the city.

Wyatt said city employees and volunteers working on behalf of the city will be evaluated and reprimanded on a case-by-case basis. According to the policy, city employees and volunteers must:

Each of the city’s social media sites will also state:

“The city of West Linn does not endorse or sponsor any advertising posted by the social media site host on the city of West Linn site. This page is a private site and the private terms of the site apply. The city of West Linn cannot guarantee reliability and accuracy of third-party links. The city of West Linn reserves the right to move any conversation prohibited by the site’s or the city’s terms of use.”