- Keep it civil and respectful. DOC encourages open and candid discussions and debates. However, all communications should be civil and respectful. Differences of opinion are okay; personal attacks are not. All abusive or hateful comments will be removed. DOC reserves the right to:
- determine what constitutes inappropriate content
- edit or entirely remove inappropriate content, and
- ban users from its social media communities; at its sole discretion. (Banned users will still be able to read DOC content when logged out.)
- Stay on topic. Comments and contributions should be relevant to the topic being discussed. DOC may remove off-topic posts or those that do not provide substantive purpose or relevance from any of the social media sites it manages.
- Keep it legal. Participating in, suggesting, or encouraging any illegal activity is cause for immediate ban from DOC's social media communities. DOC may edit or entirely remove such posts from the social media sites it manages.
- No spam. Posting the same (or similar) messages to one or many articles, galleries or discussions is considered spam, and DOC may remove such postings from the social media sites it manages.
- No solicitation. DOC may remove posts containing unsolicited personal or commercial solicitations or advertising from the social media sites it manages (eg "Friend me on Facebook.", "Win a free iPad", etc.).
- Observe copyright and trademark law. The posting of copyrighted videos, photos, articles or other material beyond what is protected as fair use is prohibited, and DOC may remove such posts from any of the social media communities it manages. Do not pass off someone else’s trademark as your own.
- Be yourself. The registration of multiple accounts for the purpose of trolling or harassing other users or with the intent to disrupt the flow of conversation is prohibited. Engaging in this type of behaviour may result in all user names being banned from DOC's social media communities.
- Protect your privacy. Do not post personal or any other information that you do not want made public. DOC may remove any reference to the identity of a participant from the social media sites it manages, with the exception of what is disclosed upon registration.
- Respect the privacy of others. DOC may remove from any of the social media sites it manages any reference to personal information about other users or DOC employees (apart from what they have disclosed in the community themselves) that can be used to identify or locate them, or that could otherwise be deemed to constitute an invasion of privacy.
- Opinions. The opinions expressed by users and guest authors on DOC managed social media sites are theirs alone, and not those of DOC.
- Third-party links. Links on DOC's social media communities may go to third-party sites. DOC is not responsible for the content on those sites.