Westchester County Sets Social Media Policy

WHITE PLAINS, NY — Beginning Wednesday, Westchester County Government will put a social media policy in place that is designed to foster constructive and relevant dialog.

The county's communications department posted on Facebook the policy that it hopes will encourage constructive and relevant dialog.

Communications Director Catherine Cioffi told Patch that all the comments left on social media will be read and those that violate the policy will be removed.

"The communications department is looking for and exploring best practices and wants to make sure social media pages are a resource," she said, "and this is furthering that goal."

Cioffi said in the post that the county's law department was consulted as was the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic to explore legal options and get guidance on the best way to move forward.

Beginning Tuesday, the county's social media policy will be:

Westchester County encourages a free and open dialog where people of differing opinions can come together in a civil way and converse about specific posted topics. However, know that content posted on our social media pages will be deleted if it includes:

• Vulgar, racist or sexist slurs
• Obscenities
• Comments advocating violence
• Incorrect information that can threaten public health and safety
• Comments that are not relevant to the topic of the post
• A user who is misrepresenting themselves.

Those who violate this policy three times will be banned from the County's social media page.