Social Media Policy

To view a full list of the Town of Flower Mound's social media pages, visit our Stay Connected page. 

Flower Mound Social Media Terms of Use Policy

The Town of Flower Mound (“Town”) believes resident feedback provides an important role in the governance of our community. The Town’s official social media channels are just a few of the many tools the Town uses to distribute information. Not every issue facing the Town will be addressed on the social networking sites. The Town’s overall goals in using social media is to:

  • Provide information and updates regarding Town services, projects, events, and more;
  • Support community engagement and outreach and encourage participation through comments and feedback; and 
  • Support marketing and promotional campaigns

The Town intends to promote effective communication and maintain a respectful dialogue. In that spirit, the commenting and moderation rules will maintain a productive and open forum for community discussion. The Town’s social media administrators use these guidelines to ensure comments are constructive and suitable for all readers, while respecting a range of opinions and points of view. Moderation will take place during the Town's normal business hours.

Please be aware that when engaging with the Town of Flower Mound through social media, you agree to the following:

Moderation of Third Party Content

The Town of Flower Mound does not necessarily endorse, support, sanction, encourage, verify, or agree with Third Party comments, messages, posts, opinions, advertisements, videos, promoted content, external hyperlinks, linked websites (or the information, products, or services contained therein), statements, commercial products, processes, or services posted on any social media site. The Town of Flower Mound's social media sites serve as limited public forums and all content published is subject to preservation and disclosure in accordance with the Texas Public Information Act, Chapter 552, Texas Government Code.

Individuals who post or comment are legally responsible for their comments and/or posts. Comments and/or posts must not breach any law, confidentiality or copyright.  While comments and posts will not be removed based on their opinion or viewpoint, Moderators may remove or redirect comments or replies that contain:

  • Content that is off-topic or not within the scope of the responsibilities of the Town of Flower Mound (or the specific departmental page);
  • Comments and posts that include personally identifiable information, such as a social security number or other sensitive information;
  • Comments that contain threats of immediate breach of the peace or promotes violence or illegal activities, i.e. fighting words;
  • Comments that contain obscenity;
  • Comments that contain actual defamation;
  • Content that uses the copyrighted work of others;
  • Content that contains spam or links to malware;
  • Commercial endorsements of products, services, organizations, or other entities;
  • Comments and posts that serve electoral campaign purposes. This includes political endorsements of parties, candidates, or groups; or
  • Content that promote imminent illegal activity.

In addition, the Town reserves the right to require those who comment on its posts to comply with the Terms of Use of the Social Media Site and will report users the Town believes to be in violation of the Terms of Use.  

Comments on the Town of Flower Mound’s official social media channels are not deemed to be official public testimony concerning any project or program for which the Town is required to hold a public hearing. Expressing your opinion there is for discussion only and is not a substitute for a formal statement in a public hearing process. A participant who posts comments contrary to the social media comments moderation policy may be prohibited from future participation on the Town’s official social media channels. The Town of Flower Mound reserves the right to update these Terms of Use.

Retention

Any communications sent to or received by the Town of Flower Mound and its employees via social media may be subject to the Town’s retention and disclosure requirements. The Town is required to comply with the Texas Public Information Act to ensure government is open and that the public has access to public records and information of which our agency is the custodian. These retention requirements apply regardless of the form of the record (e.g. digital text, photos, audio, and video). To that end, the Town automatically collects and stores all information posted on the Town of Flower Mound's social media sites. All information posted on these sites may be subject to public disclosure under the Texas Public Information Act, even if it has been deleted.

Emergency Postings

Social media sites are not monitored 24/7. If there is an emergency, contact 9-1-1.