Social media policy

This policy applies to all content published by the Department, regardless of format or platform feature used.

Information about the Department of Education's social media policy

The Department’s presence on social media is managed by the press office. Our social media channels are:

• X @Education_NI  (external link opens in a new window / tab)
• Facebook  Department of Education NI(external link opens in a new window / tab)
• Instagram de_northern_ireland(external link opens in a new window / tab)
• LinkedIN Department of Education(external link opens in a new window / tab)
• YouTube TheDeptofEducation 

We use social media to share important information and highlight the work of the Department. Posts on social media will include the following:

• ministerial announcements and visits
• press releases
• website updates
• marketing campaigns
• consultations
• departmental initiatives/programmes
• any other issues the department considers appropriate

However, this does not mean that every visit, press release, initiative or website update will be promoted on our social channels.

Content will be tailored to each platform. This means the same announcement may not be published across every channel, and where it is, the format, tone or presentation may vary to suit each platform’s audience and requirements.

Our social media activity may include platform-specific features such as Stories, Reels, polls or live video. We may use appropriate hashtags where relevant to boost content visibility or tag individuals and/or organisations.

We may use analytics and sentiment analysis to monitor our social media channels for trends, insights and engagement. 

You may unsubscribe/unfollow us at any stage and we reserve the right to modify or change our social media policy at any time.

Accessibility

The Department is committed to ensuring all content is accessible. This includes adding captions or subtitles to all video content, applying alt text to all images and graphics, using plain language, and ensuring formatting is clear and easy to read. 

Messages and replies

We welcome feedback and engagement from our followers however we are unable to respond to direct messages or reply to comments. Where we can, we will point you to additional information already in the public domain.

The Department reserves the right to turn off the comment feature on any of its channels in response to abusive comments.

Engagement

We:

• will only engage with social media posts with a non-commercial interest however being engaged does not imply endorsement of any kind.
• may follow you if you follow us however being followed by us does not imply endorsement of any kind.
• we may occasionally share content from other organisations or individuals that we consider relevant and useful. This does not constitute an endorsement of those organisations, individuals, or their views.

Moderation

We moderate our social channels from Monday to Friday during office hours, 9am to 5pm. Comments or messages received outside of these hours will be reviewed on the next working day.

We will remove, block, ban and, if necessary, report users to the associated social media platform who direct messages at us which we believe:

• bully, harass or intimidate any individual or organisation
• are unlawful, libellous, defamatory, abusive, threatening, harmful, obscene, profane, sexually oriented or racially offensive
• are deceptive or misleading
• infringe or violate someone else's rights
• violate the law
• violate any intellectual property rights
• discuss ongoing legal proceedings
• are spam (persistent negative and/ or abusive tweeting in which the aim is to provoke a response)
• advertise products or services
• are irrelevant or off-topic
• are set up using departmental imagery
• are disruptive
• are repetitive

We will also remove, block, report or ban any user who:

• encourages others to post such messages
• uses offensive images as their profile picture
• has an offensive username

We do not engage in party politics.

Photography and video

Some social media posts may include videos or photographic images to celebrate an achievement or acknowledge a visit. The use of these images will be managed in line with the school’s own social media/communications policy, and this will be agreed between the Department’s Communications team and the school in advance. The Department will not refer to children or young people by name.

On occasion, in agreement with the school or organisation, the Department may invite media to attend events. If media request names of any children to accompany either video or photographic images, the Department will refer the journalist to the school or organisation for consent.

Queries

The Department’s social media channels are not a point of contact for media enquiries, which should be directed to the Press Office in the first instance. We do, however, reserve the right to comment on inaccurate coverage or comment.

The usual way of contacting the department for official correspondence can be found on our Contact page.