Online Comment Policy

The purpose of County social media posts are to facilitate a polite and constructive dialogue between the County of San Diego and its constituents on matters of public interest. To further this purpose, the public is permitted to comment on posted items. However, comments must not hinder or distract from useful discussion. This site is intended for the benefit of all County residents, and any inappropriate or offensive material will detract from its purpose. Moreover, the County will restrict any information that would compromise the privacy, safety, and security of the public, the County, or the users of this site. For these reasons, the County will regularly review posted comments and delete any that are harmful to the purpose of the forum.

The types of content that may be deleted include, but are not necessarily limited to:

  • Comments that are clearly off-topic or irrelevant to the subject matter of the item being commented upon;
  • Promotion or advertisement of a business or commercial interest;
  • Multiple copies of the same comment, or repetition of substantially similar comments;
  • Promotion of, or opposition to, any political party, campaign, candidate, or proposition, unless such promotion or opposition is inherently related to discussion of an item posted by the County;
  • Personally identifiable information of any individual or individuals, including, but not limited to, phone numbers, e-mail and physical addresses, social security numbers, or other identification numbers;
  • Threats to any person or organization;
  • Comments that are vulgar, derogatory, obscene, or defamatory;
  • Content that would be considered offensive to a reasonable person, including sexual content and profanity;
  • Advocacy, promotion, or encouragement of unlawful discrimination on the basis of race, religion, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, gender, age, marital status, national origin, or status with respect to public assistance;
  • Advocacy, promotion, or encouragement of illegal activity;
  • False or misleading information, including impersonation of any other individual;
  • Information that may tend to compromise the safety or security of the public;
  • Content that violates the legal ownership interest of any other party;

By commenting, you are subject to the Terms of Service of the host site. Posting comments to this site will grant the County and anyone reading this site permission to copy, distribute, make derivatives, display, or perform the commenter’s work.

The comments posted on this site do not reflect the views of the County of San Diego or its officers and employees. Reference in any comment to a viewpoint, product, service, entity, or organization is solely attributable to the individual commenter.

Comments may not be reproduced for the purpose of stating or implying County endorsement or approval of any viewpoint, product, service, entity, or organization. 

Inappropriate comments may remain posted for a significant amount of time prior to being noticed and deleted by an administrator; however, this should not be construed as an approval of the comment or an exception to the comment policy.

Comments made through the County’s online locations will in no way constitute a legal or official notice or comment to the County of San Diego or any official or employee of the County of San Diego for any purpose.

Media queries/comments cannot be answered through online comment sections. Media personnel are requested to contact the County Communications Office at (619) 595-4633.

This policy is subject to amendment or modification at any time to ensure the use of this site is consistent with its purpose as a limited forum. 

General Disclaimer

The County of San Diego provides external links solely for its readers’ information and convenience. Additionally, this site may contain links to advertising or other content posted by the host site. Upon selecting a link to an external Web site, a reader accepts that he or she is navigating away from County content and is subject to the privacy and security policies of the owners, sponsors and/or authors of the external Web site.

The County of San Diego:

Does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness or completeness of information contained on a linked Web site.

Does not endorse the organizations sponsoring linked Web sites or the views they express or the products/services they offer. 

Cannot and does not authorize the use of copyrighted materials contained in linked Web sites. Users must request such authorization from the sponsor of the linked Web site.

Is not responsible for transmissions users receive from linked Web sites.

Does not guarantee that external websites comply with Section 508 (Accessibility Requirements) of the Rehabilitation Act.

Does not endorse any entity, product, service or organization referenced by, or within, any linked site. These references are not intended to reflect the opinion of the County, the Board of Supervisors, or County employees concerning the significance, priority, or importance to be given the referenced entity, product, service or organization, and may not be quoted or reproduced for the purpose of stating or implying County of San Diego endorsement or approval of any product, person, or service or organization.

Security & Privacy

To ensure that Web sites and online services remain secure and available to all users, the County of San Diego may use or analyze software programs to monitor network traffic and identify unauthorized attempts to: upload or change information; deny service; otherwise cause damage; or access non-public information. Such attempts are prohibited and may be punishable by law.

The County of San Diego may use or analyze software programs to create summary statistics to assess which information is of most and least interest or to identify system performance.

Information collected about individual visits to County online locations may include the name of the Internet domain, the date, and the time at which an individual accessed County locations.

If a user chooses to provide the County with personal information in an email message, it will be used only to respond to the user.

Except for the above purposes, no other attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits.

Copyrights

Links to County of San Diego online locations are welcomed.

Unless a copyright is indicated, information on County social media sites is in the public domain and may be copied and distributed without permission. Citation of the County of San Diego is appreciated.

If a copyright is indicated on a video, photo, graphic, or other material, permission to copy these materials must be obtained from the original source.