Social Media Content Policy

Welcome to the City of Madison Government Social Media pages.

The City of Madison uses social media to communicate and engage with social media users. The City recognizes the rights, benefits and responsibilities of using social media. We encourage you to consider how your comments and actions on our sites may impact others as you interact with the City and other people using these platforms.

The City cannot prevent, and is not responsible for, content placed by others that may be offensive, hurtful, in poor taste or disagreeable. This means the City cannot moderate content on its social media for vulgarity, profanity or even hate speech. However, there are some things that may not be considered “free speech” under the U.S. and Wisconsin Constitutions, listed below.

The City reserves the right to delete or hide content placed by others on our social media, such as comments, replies, posts, reviews, photos, links, or other content that include any of the following:

• Spam, advertising or links that promote a business, service or product
• Malware, viruses, security threats to the City network; or flooding
• Advocating illegal activity
• Direct Threats as defined by law
• Obscenity rising to the level of no constitutional protection (graphic depictions)
• Infringement of copyrights or trademarks
• Statements that are defamatory according to law

Please note: Content posted on City of Madison Government Social Media by anyone other than employees of the City of Madison does not reflect the opinions or position of the City of Madison or its elected officials or employees.

The views, guidelines and rules of the social media platform are those of the company that provides the platform (such as Facebook, Inc. or X, Corp.) and not those of the City of Madison.

Activity on City of Madison Government Social Media is subject to public disclosure under the Public Records Laws of the State of Wisconsin (Wis. Stat. ss. 19.31-19.39).

Nothing in this policy or on this site is intended as legal advice.