Social media terms of use
DVA uses a number of social media services to complement its traditional public outreach activities. These services include Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Flickr and social bookmarking and sharing buttons on DVA’s websites. The number and nature of social media services used by DVA will change over time. The following Terms of Use apply to all social media services in use by DVA at any given time.
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Terms of Use
Any content, views, opinions and/or responses to questions or views uploaded, expressed or submitted by the creators, sponsors, advertisers or users of social media services utilised by DVA, other than the content provided by DVA, are solely the views, opinions and responsibility of the person submitting them and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of DVA. DVA is not responsible for content that third parties publish post, upload, distribute, disseminate or otherwise transmit via social media services.
DVA recommends that users exercise their own skill and care with respect to their use of information or material posted on social media and that users carefully evaluate the accuracy, currency, completeness and relevance of the material contained on social media sites or any linked site.
The Commonwealth of Australia, DVA, its staff, agents and contractors, accept no liability whatsoever arising from or connected to the currency, accuracy or completeness of any material posted on social media sites and disclaims all responsibility for any loss or damage which may arise from the use of information provided via this vehicle.
Social media services may occasionally be unavailable and DVA accepts no responsibility for lack of service due to downtime.
Acceptable use
The Australian Government and social media services have strict guidelines on discrimination and intimidation. Therefore, DVA takes a strong stance on deleting content that is discriminatory, hateful or threatening and actions which may offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate.
When contributing your views on DVA social media sites:
- Do not publish anything that could offend, humiliate or intimidate another person, or has the potential to affect national security, DVA or the Australian Government. This is an apolitical site and posts that are political in content and/or nature will be removed.
- Racist comments, obscene or explicit comments are not allowed. Comments that are abusive, hateful or intended to defame any person or organisation will be removed.
- Solicitations or advertisements, including promotion or endorsement of any financial, commercial or non-government agency, will be removed. Links to non-government websites, other Facebook groups or inappropriate posts will be removed at the discretion of the Department.
- Posters who regularly and intentionally spread misinformation on DVA social media sites (regarding any matter) may be blocked from posting.
- Posters who provide incorrect or misleading advice to other users relating to Department of Veterans' Affairs matters or services (e.g. entitlements, eligibility or DVA support services) may be blocked from posting.
Users who persist in breaching these Terms of Use may be banned.
DVA employees should consult the Social Media Policy available on the DVA intranet before posting to social networking sites.
Moderation of posted content
While DVA makes reasonable efforts to ensure inappropriate material is identified and moderated, DVA does not guarantee it will identify all inappropriate material or that inappropriate material will not be published.
DVA will hide material it deems could be distressing to others, such as threats of self harm or suicide. In these instances DVA will attempt to follow up with the person who made the post to ensure they have the information and support they need to seek help and remain safe.
DVA also does not guarantee that any posted content will be published and a user submitting content should not infer that the non-publication of that content suggests that the content is inappropriate.
Replies
DVA endeavours to reply individually to comments and messages received via social media services where appropriate.
Links
Social media sites may contain links to websites external to DVA. Links to external websites and social media profiles are provided as a convenience to users and such DVA has no direct control over the content of the linked sites, or the changes that may occur to the content on those sites. DVA is not responsible for the content or reliability of links, or for any loss or inconvenience arising from their use.
Providing links to external websites does not constitute an endorsement or a recommendation of any material on those sites or of any third party products or services offered by, from or through those sites. Users of links provided by this website are responsible for being aware of which organisation is hosting the website they visit.
Privacy
Users are reminded that social media sites are public spaces on the internet and interactions are publicly viewable and searchable over time. Social media services provide their own disclaimers and policies on collection and use of visitor information, over which DVA has no control. DVA recommends users familiarise themselves with the terms of use of each social media site before use.
Due to privacy considerations it is not possible to comment on individual cases via social media.