Berthoud Fire Protection District

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Social Media and Comments Policy

Social Media and Public Comment Policy

Purpose of District Social Media

Berthoud Fire Protection District (“the District”) operates this website and its official social media accounts to provide residents, businesses, visitors, and other interested persons with timely information about District services, emergency incidents, public safety, community events, projects, programs, and other matters related to the District’s public responsibilities.

The District strives for openness in its communications and welcomes public participation regarding the subjects addressed in its social media posts. The District may respond to questions and comments when appropriate but is not obligated to respond to every submission.

User content and comments do not represent the views or position of the District. The District does not assume any liability for user content posted on the site. All links to other websites found linked are provided as a service to readers but such linkage does not constitute an endorsement of those sites by Berthoud Fire, and as such, we are not responsible for the content of external websites. 

Emergencies and Requests for Service

The District’s social media accounts are not continuously monitored and must not be used to report an emergency or request emergency assistance. Call 911 immediately to report an emergency.

Questions or requests concerning District programs, public education, services, or other official business may be directed to info@berthoudfire.org.

Limited Purpose of Comment Areas

When the District allows comments on a social media post, the interactive portion of that post is intended as a limited public forum for discussion related to the subject addressed by the District’s original post.

The District welcomes differing opinions, questions, concerns, and criticism. A comment will not be removed merely because it criticizes the District, its Board of Directors, officers, employees, policies, actions, expenditures, priorities, or decisions, or because the District disagrees with the commenter’s viewpoint.

Commenters are encouraged to remain civil and constructive. However, disagreement, criticism, unfavorable opinions, or discourteous language alone will not ordinarily constitute grounds for removal.

Comment Standards

To preserve the intended purpose, accessibility, security, and lawful operation of the District’s social media accounts, the District may hide, remove, or report content that falls within one or more of the following categories:

1.      Unrelated content: Content that is not reasonably related to the subject of the District’s original post or the District’s governmental functions.

2.      Spam or disruptive repetition: Identical or substantially repetitive comments posted multiple times, automated content, chain messages, platform manipulation, or content that materially disrupts the orderly use of the comment area.

3.      Commercial solicitations: Advertising, solicitations, promotions, or endorsements of private businesses, products, services, political campaigns, candidates, ballot committees, or fundraising activities that are unrelated to the subject of the post.

4.      Malicious or fraudulent content: Phishing attempts, malware, deceptive links, impersonation, fraudulent solicitations, or content intended to compromise an account, device, network, or information system.

5.      True threats or unlawful incitement: Credible threats of violence or harm against any person or organization, or content intended and likely to incite imminent unlawful conduct.

6.      Obscenity or unlawful sexual content: Content that is obscene under applicable law, depicts unlawful sexual conduct, or contains sexual exploitation material.

7.      Unlawful conduct: Content that solicits, facilitates, or constitutes criminal activity or otherwise violates applicable federal, state, or local law.

8.      Personal or confidential information: Personal identifying information, protected health information, confidential personnel information, private contact information, financial account information, or other information whose disclosure would violate another person’s privacy or applicable law.

9.      Emergency-scene or security information: Information that could reasonably compromise an active emergency response, investigation, public safety operation, facility security, cybersecurity, or the safety of District personnel, patients, witnesses, victims, or members of the public.

10. Legal ownership violations: Content that infringes a copyright, trademark, trade secret, or other legal ownership interest.

11. Unlawful harassment: Targeted conduct that constitutes unlawful harassment, stalking, a true threat, or another legally prohibited form of intimidation. Criticism, disagreement, insulting language, or the expression of an unpopular viewpoint does not, by itself, constitute unlawful harassment under this policy.

12. Platform violations: Content that the social media platform independently removes or restricts under its applicable terms of service, community standards, or legal obligations.

These standards will be applied without regard to the political, social, religious, ideological, or other viewpoint expressed by the commenter.

Moderation and Enforcement

When practicable, the District will take the least restrictive action reasonably appropriate to address a policy violation. Depending on the circumstances and the functionality offered by the applicable platform, the District may:

·         Leave the content visible;

·         Ask the commenter to voluntarily revise or remove the content;

·         Hide or remove the specific content;

·         Report the content to the social media platform;

·         Temporarily restrict an account’s ability to participate; or

·         Block an account when narrower measures are unavailable or have been ineffective.

The District will not block or restrict a user solely because the user has criticized the District or expressed a disfavored viewpoint.

Blocking or account-level restrictions will generally be reserved for circumstances involving repeated or serious violations, spam or automated abuse, credible safety or security concerns, unlawful conduct, or situations in which the platform does not provide a less restrictive means of addressing the violation.

Whenever reasonably practicable, the District will document content removed or hidden by District personnel, the policy provision supporting the action, the date of the action, and any account-level restriction imposed.

A person who believes that the District mistakenly removed content or restricted an account may request administrative review by contacting info@berthoudfire.org. The request should identify the account, the approximate date of the action, and the content involved. The District will review the action and restore access or content when appropriate and technically possible.

Public Records

Posts, comments, messages, moderation records, and other communications concerning District business may constitute public records and may be retained or disclosed as required by the Colorado Open Records Act, C.R.S. § 24-72-101, et seq., applicable records-retention schedules, litigation holds, court orders, or other law.

Deleting content from public view does not necessarily eliminate the District’s obligation to retain a record of the content.

Users should not submit confidential, medical, personal, or sensitive information through the District’s public social media accounts.

User Content and External Links

Comments and other content submitted by members of the public do not represent the views, policies, or positions of the District.

The District’s decision to leave a comment visible does not constitute approval or endorsement of that comment. Likewise, following, sharing, linking to, or interacting with an outside account or website does not necessarily constitute District endorsement of that account, organization, content, product, or service.

The District is not responsible for content hosted on external websites or for actions independently taken by a social media platform. All users remain subject to the applicable platform’s terms of service and community standards.

No Creation of Individual Rights

This policy is intended to guide the District’s administration of its official social media accounts. It does not require the District to maintain any social media account, enable comments on any post, preserve a particular platform feature, respond to any particular submission, or continue operating an interactive forum.

Nothing in this policy is intended to create a contractual right, private cause of action, or entitlement beyond the rights provided by applicable law.

Policy Administration

The District reserves the right to modify this policy as necessary to reflect changes in law, technology, platform functionality, or District operations. Any revised policy will be applied prospectively when reasonably practicable.

Questions regarding this policy or reports of content that may violate it may be submitted to info@berthoudfire.org.