Commonwealth of Pennsylvania government agencies and government officials engage with Pennsylvanians through many online channels, including PA.gov, governor.pa.gov, and agency websites. We encourage the public to engage with the commonwealth through these channels and welcome all viewpoints. Please be aware that when engaging with the commonwealth over social media, you are agreeing to the following.
Official Social Media Channels
A list of official Commonwealth of Pennsylvania government online channels can be found on PA.gov. The commonwealth is not responsible for non-official pages or content generated by users on those platforms.
Terms and Conditions
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's government social media pages are located within platforms such as Facebook and Twitter that have their own terms of services, privacy policies, and other rules to which users are subject when users visit those pages.
User-generated Content
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania monitors its government social media pages but is not responsible for content generated by users on those platforms. Comments and other content posted on those platforms may be subject to public disclosure.
The commonwealth's individual social media pages also contain their own commenting policy statements and provisos which users are presumed to have read and understand in their use of the channels.
Comment Policy
We encourage the public to comment on our social media pages and welcome all viewpoints. Comments should remain relevant to the topic at hand and participants must treat each other with respect.
We review the comments posted to our social media pages on a regular basis and reserve the right to delete comments that contain the following:
- Profane and/or vulgar content;
- Sexually suggestive or harassing content;
- Obscene content;
- Nudity in a participant's profile picture;
- Threats of physical or bodily harm;
- Defamatory statements;
- Disparaging language or hate speech targeting an individual's race, color, religious creed, ancestry, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, AIDS or HIV status, or disability;
- Commercial content promoting or soliciting service or products;
- Content promoting political organizations;
- Name-calling and/or personal attacks;
- Spam, such as the same comment posted repeatedly;
- Personally identifying, sensitive and/or private information;
- Language or content suggesting or encouraging illegal activity;
- Information that could reasonably compromise public safety; and
- Other content that the State Police deems inappropriate.
- Communications posted on our social media pages will not be construed as satisfying requirements for legal notice or service, shall not be considered official public comment, and shall not be construed as an official request for records pursuant to the Right-to-Know Law.
We reserve the right to modify this policy at any time. Continued use of our social media pages following the posting of any modification signifies acceptance of such modification.
Contacting the Commonwealth
Social media is not considered an official channel for contacting Commonwealth of Pennsylvania agencies and officials. While the commonwealth at times responds to queries and comments on social media, staffing for that purpose is not 24/7. The commonwealth encourages users to follow instructions on how to officially contact government offices found on their individual websites. A list of official commonwealth websites and contact pages can be found on PA.gov.
Communications posted on the commonwealth's social media pages will not be construed as satisfying requirements for legal notice or service, shall not be considered official public comment, and shall not be construed as an official request for records pursuant to the Right-to-Know Law.
Please visit the Contact page on this website for information on contacting the Office of the Governor.
Intellectual Property
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania does not claim ownership of content users submit or make available on our social media pages. We only claim rights in what we write, post, or otherwise share.
We have intellectual property interests in everything we post or otherwise share (even though some of it may have come from other sources); our intellectual property is not in the public domain unless we specifically say so. In other words, if users want to use a logo, a video, a document, etc., users need to get our legal permission.
Links
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania sometimes posts links to other public and/or private organizations on social media. A link does not constitute an endorsement of content, viewpoint, policies, products, or services of that web site. Once a user clicks a link to another website not maintained by the commonwealth, the user is subject to the terms and conditions of that website. Read our full external linking policy and disclaimer on PA.gov.
Report
If you experience abuse from a DOC employee, or if you witness harassment or hate speech from a DOC employee, contact our Bureau of Intelligence and Investigations.
