Social media use

Guidance and moderation information for the UK Government social media channels in Scotland, including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.


Our channels are managed and monitored during office hours, Monday to Friday.

Facebook & Instagram

The UK Government Scotland Facebook page is used to post information about the UK Government’s work in and for the benefit of Scotland. It has a linked Instagram account

These accounts are managed by the UK Government communications team in Scotland. Comments posted on posts on these pages are views of individuals and don’t represent the views of the UK Government. We encourage shares, but our views are also not represented by the accounts who share our content.

While we welcome comments from people interested in the subjects being discussed, we would urge users to keep their comments relevant. In particular, we reserve the right to remove comments received on Facebook that:

  • contain abusive, obscene, indecent or offensive language, or link to obscene or offensive material
  • contain swear words or other sorts of profanity
  • are completely removed from the topic of conversation or aren’t relevant to the item posted on the wall
  • contain abusive language towards an individual involved in the thread, other organisations or the page administrator
  • constitute spam or promote or advertise products, except where it’s for an event, publication or similar item that has direct relevance to the subject of discussion. Information about locating and sharing knowledge and expertise is welcomed, but within the specific discussion
  • are designed to cause nuisance to the page administrator or other users

For serious and/or persistent breaches of the moderation policy, we reserve the right to prevent users from posting further comments.

YouTube

The UK Government Scotland YouTube channel is used to host videos about the UK Government’s work in and for the benefit of Scotland.

The account is managed by the UK Government communications team in Scotland. Comments posted on videos are views of individuals and don’t represent the views of the UK Government.

We do not actively moderate comments on our uploaded videos and reserve the right to disable this function.

Twitter

Our Twitter accounts @UKGovScotland and @ScotSecofState are managed by the UK Government communications team in Scotland. These accounts post regular tweets covering the UK Government’s work in and for the benefit of Scotland, and the activity of Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland and its Ministers.

Where these Twitter accounts follow another account this does not imply any kind of endorsement. We encourage retweets, but our views are also not represented by the accounts who retweet our content.

We review all @ messages regularly, but don’t generally reply to them, this also applies to direct messages. We reserve the right to remove comments and block users that breach the guidelines as outlined for Facebook posts above.

LinkedIn

Our LinkedIn page is managed by the UK Government communications team in Scotland.

We welcome comments from interested LinkedIn users, but reserve the right to remove comments that breach the guidelines as outlined for Facebook posts above.