Royal Osteoporosis Society social media guidelines

Introduction

The purpose of these guidelines are to explain how the Royal Osteoporosis Society (ROS) uses social media, our posting and moderation guidelines for online user-generated content.

How we use social media

We use social media to communicate with the people we support and the general public. Our channels are also available to give anyone affected by osteoporosis the opportunity to be part of a community, share their experiences, ask questions and get mutual support.

Below we set out our overall posting and moderation guidelines for user-generated content.

Posting guidelines

When you participate in social media, such as Meta and X, you will be able to post messages and comments, ask questions, read and share personal stories and experiences, and receive friendly encouragement from others in similar situations.

You are fully responsible for what you write.

Please don’t make assumptions about other people’s experiences; everyone’s experience of osteoporosis is different and everyone has different coping mechanisms and tolerance levels. Remember that people may be newly diagnosed, experiencing a range of health problems, anxious about their progression of osteoporosis or have upcoming medical appointments.

Speak your mind freely, but please be sensitive to the feelings and opinions of others. You might not always agree, but you can agree to disagree in a peaceful and calm manner.

Try to be ‘gentle’ but honest as your personal experiences may come across as scary and/or 'negative' to others.

Be aware of offering advice – don’t make statements about what others ‘should’ and ‘shouldn’t’ do, and don’t judge others and the way they do things.

Do not post messages or comments that:

• incite hatred on the basis of race, religion, gender, nationality or sexuality or any other personal characteristic
• are off-topic or unrelated
  
• spread medical misinformation or unverified health claims 
• are disrespectful, malicious or offensive
• could constitute a personal attack on a person’s character
• impersonate or falsely claim to represent a person or organisation
• include swearing or obscenity
• include inappropriate or graphic imagery
• are illegal – including libel or breaking copyright
• could be considered spam or promoting misinformation 
• contain personal information like telephone numbers, address details, etc.
• contain promotion of events, groups, pages, websites, organisations and programs not affiliated with the ROS

All opinions expressed on ROS’s social media pages represent the thoughts of the individual commenters, and not those of the charity.

If you have any questions or concerns about posting, please contact us.

Moderation guidelines

ROS staff administer and moderate our social media channels, Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm, excluding Bank Holidays. Currently, we do not pre-moderate user-generated content before it goes ‘live’.

We want our channels to be a friendly and safe place, therefore we reserve the right to hide or delete any comments or content that does not follow our posting guidelines and, if necessary, we reserve the right to ‘ban’ or ‘block’ users who persistently go against our social media guidelines.

This is not about censoring your views. Moderation will not be unduly used to suppress legitimate, reasoned discussion.

We make no commitment to respond to individual comments, messages or posts.

By submitting content to any ROS social media page (wall posts, comments, photos, links, etc.), you understand that this information is publicly available, and that we may use this information in internal and external publications and other communications. If you do not wish to have your information published, please do not post that information.