Social Media Policy

Thank you for your interest. It is important to me to stay in touch with our Richmond Hill residents and I strive to keep up with both my email and my different social media platforms. That said, due to the high volume of messages, I strongly encourage you to email me at Of*********@Ri**********.ca so that your communication is received and myself or a member of my team can respond in a timely manner. I value your thoughts and input as we work together to foster “our vibrant and inclusive community of neighbours”.

Social media is one of the primary ways that information is shared, and I am grateful to those who choose to follow me. I use social media to:

• Share Richmond Hill relevant news and updates, from Richmond Hill Council and York Region Council, and from the City of Richmond Hill and York Region.
• Promote local events and activities,
• Highlight news stories and dates that have particular relevance to our community and
• Share information on topics I believe are of importance to Richmond Hill residents and business owners.

If you follow me on any social media platform, I ask that you ensure your comments are:

• Focused and relevant to the posts,
• Respectful,
• Accurate (spreading misleading or false information is prohibited), and
• Considerate of others’ privacy, avoiding inclusion of personally identifiable details, such as full names, phone numbers, email addresses, etc.

To preserve a space that respects these standards, I reserve the right to remove comments that violate them and users who repeatedly and/or purposefully violate the guidelines may be temporarily or permanently blocked or banned from accessing my social media accounts.  

A comment may be removed if it contains, but is not limited to:

• Vulgar or hateful language or libelous statements,
• Profanity, obscenity, or vulgarity (including masked words, e.g. ***),
• Defamations of a person or people,
• Name-calling or personal attacks,
• Hostile or intimidating language,
• Remarks with the sole purpose of selling a product or making a commercial endorsement,
• Promotional or spam materials,
• References to City of Richmond Hill staff by name,
• Any other comments deemed inappropriate,
• Unrelated to City of Richmond Hill services, programs, or projects or are unintelligible or irrelevant,
• Unrelated to the subject of the post the comment was made on (off-topic),
• Unproven or inaccurate factual claims (disinformation),
• Obscene or pornographic,
• Duplicate or spam content (the same comment posted verbatim multiple times in a post).

I reserve the right to temporarily or permanently block or ban accounts from my social media in the following situations:

• If your profile is not a real name or is a fake/duplicate account,
• If you are NOT an individual (Page or Group, etc.),
• If you are soliciting followers by direct message.

Thank you for joining me in upholding these communication standards and engaging in a meaningful and productive conversation about our Richmond Hill community.