Social Media Policy

Effective Date: January 1, 2026

Social-Media Platforms

This document constitutes the Friends of Ryan O'Connor Social Media Policy (the "Policy"). As described below, this Policy applies to the following social-media platforms:

• Facebook: Ryan O'Connor for Howard County Council (facebook.com/RyanForHoCo)
• Instagram: Ryan O'Connor for Howard County Council (@ryanforhoco)
• X / Twitter: Ryan O'Connor for Howard County Council (@RyanForHoCo)

Purposes

The Ryan O'Connor for Howard County Council Facebook, Instagram, and X platforms promote and disseminate information about Ryan O'Connor's campaign initiatives, events, endorsements, community information, and campaign and personal announcements, and are limited public forums for discussion with and among users about those posted initiatives, events, endorsements, community information, and announcements.

Vigorous, constructive conversations are encouraged within comments, messages, reposts, and other user communications ("Comments"). Friends of Ryan O'Connor does not discriminate based on viewpoint, but may remove Comments and restrict access to users for violating this Policy. Friends of Ryan O'Connor reviews Comments on all of the campaign's social-media platforms and is interested to hear the opinions of District 5 residents through all of those platforms.

Comments

To facilitate the purposes of the social-media platforms, Comments may be removed if they contain, constitute, or link to:

• Malicious or harmful software;
• Advertisements, promotions, or solicitations of a commercial product or service;
• Confidential, personally identifying, or private information as defined by State law;
• Profanity, nudity, indecency, or obscenity;
• Threats of violence or to public safety;
• Copyrighted materials in violation of State or federal law;
• Disruptively repetitive content;
• Remarks that are clearly unrelated to campaign or community concerns; or
• Remarks that are clearly unrelated to the subject matter of any post ever made on the platform by or on behalf of the campaign.

Rules

The following rules apply to the social-media platforms:

• Any content removed pursuant to this Policy will be retained for one year.
• Users may be temporarily or permanently restricted from accessing the social-media platform if they repeatedly and consistently violate this Policy.
• Users may contact Friends of Ryan O'Connor at any time at [email protected] to identify Comments or other conduct in violation of the Policy. Until a Comment in violation of the Policy is removed, users should ignore it or, if responding, do so in compliance with the Policy.
• Friends of Ryan O'Connor shall notify the public of any changes to this Policy and identify the changes.

User-Generated Content

Friends of Ryan O'Connor monitors the social-media platforms, but is not responsible for content generated by users on these platforms. A Comment is the opinion of the commentator only. Publication of a Comment does not necessarily imply endorsement of, or agreement by, Ryan O'Connor. Comments and content should be understood to be entirely public, and users should not write Comments with any information that they consider, or would like to keep, confidential.

Contact

Questions about this Social Media Policy? Email [email protected].

Authorized by: Friends of Ryan O'Connor, Lori O'Connor Treasurer.