Social Media Policy

The City of Beavercreek intends to promote effective communication and maintain a respectful dialogue through the use of its website and social media pages. The purpose of all City social media pages is to provide people with timely, reliable, and accurate updates about City services, events, and programs. The City manages this page as a limited public forum and therefore the following conditions apply:

  1. Any and all posts on this page constitutes acceptance of these terms. 
  2. Comments posted by others on this page, or any City affiliated page are not considered the opinions of the City; nor does the City endorse any third-party comments on this page. 
  3. The City reserves the right to remove and/or block anyone who posts content inconsistent with the stated purpose of this page, as determined by the City at its discretion, as well as content which is otherwise unprotected by the First Amendment. 
  4. The City does not allow posting of photos or videos by anyone other than the City. 
  5. The City of Beavercreek reserves the right to post certain information without public comment available at its discretion, where doing so substantially serves the purpose of timely and efficiently helping the City do its work.
  6. To preserve the integrity of police investigations, public comment will be disabled for posts concerning suspect identification. Tips/information regarding suspects should be reported to the police department. 

Platforms: No social media accounts, pages, or websites should be created on behalf of the City without the approval of the City Manager.

Usage Policy: Staff from the City of Beavercreek will monitor content and comments posted to the city's social media pages to ensure its social media guidelines are being followed. 

Moderators will be authorized to create, edit, and delete posts and comments if they are deemed in violation of the city's social media policy or any applicable law. Current platforms monitored by the city include Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, Instagram, Nextdoor, and Flickr. Additional social media platforms may also require moderation.

When the city creates a post or discussion thread, that thread is solely dedicated to the limited topic. Any irrelevant, off-topic, or unprotected speech will be removed.

The City reserves the right to discontinue any of its social media pages at any time for any reason with or without notice.

Social Media Standards: The City welcomes a person’s right to express his/her opinions, but commenters’ posts must be related to the content and purpose of this page. The City of Beavercreek reserves the right to post certain information without public comment available at its discretion, where doing so substantially serves the purpose of this page. To preserve the integrity of police investigations, public comment will be disabled for posts concerning suspect identification. Tips/information regarding suspects should be reported to the police department. The City of Beavercreek reserves the right to remove any comments that constitute unprotected speech under the First Amendment, as well as any content inconsistent with the stated purpose of this page, including but not limited to the following:

  • Obscenity, incitement, defamation, true threats, or any content that violates the rights of others;
  • Content that harms or could harm the safety or well-being of one of City personnel (whether it be a City elected official, employee, or independent contractor) including personal attacks; 
  • Content that disrupts or disturbs the ability of the office/ department to express its message;
  • Content that requires an inordinate amount of staff involvement or resources;
  • Violation of any laws of the State of Ohio;
  • Spam or solicitations of commerce, including but not limited to advertisements of a vendor's products or services
  • Infringement upon copyrights or trademarks;
  • Information that may tend to compromise the safety or security of the public or public systems;

The City of Beavercreek's government is nonpartisan and the city does not take formal positions on local, state or national candidates or issues. As such, the city's social media sites should not be used to comment on political candidates or issues.

The content posted to the City of Beavercreek's website or social media pages does not necessarily reflect the opinions and positions of the City of Beavercreek, its elected officials, or its employees.

Public Access: All social media sites maintained by the City of Beavercreek shall adhere to applicable federal, state, and local laws, regulations, and policies. Social media sites are subject to the Ohio Public Records Act. Any content posted to the city's social media pages may be considered a public record, and therefore subject to public disclosure.

Copyright: Material made available through the City of Beavercreek website and social media pages is property of the city and intended for information purposes only. Any use, transmission, duplication, or distribution of any material from these pages should be clearly attributed to the City of Beavercreek. Commercial uses of copyrighted materials from these sites is prohibited without written consent from the city. Any and all trademarked or copyrighted logos or taglines may not be used for any non­governmental purpose.

Questions: Questions concerning the online moderation of these channels may be directed to Communicationspr@beavercreekohio.gov