Social Media Protocol

Social Media Protocol

The Ottawa Public Health (OPH) social media accounts are the City of Ottawa's official source for local health information. OPH is dedicated to maintaining an online space that is informative, inclusive and engaging, ensuring all interactions foster learning and respect.

Follow Ottawa Public Health (OPH) on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter), and our YouTube Channel. Please abide by the Terms of Use for the company hosting the social media site.

Followers can expect content related to:

  • OPH programs and services, including health promotion and disease prevention messaging.
  • Newsworthy events involving public health organizations and health initiatives.
  • Timely notifications that affect Ottawa residents and visitors, partners and other stakeholders.

OPH's social media accounts are managed by the Health Information and Public Engagement Communications Team.

Availability and Direct Messages

OPH actively monitors its social media accounts during regular business hours. Please note that OPH does not always monitor or respond to direct messages. OPH may use comments to engage with its audience and respond to comments when there is a benefit for the larger audience.

OPH does not provide individual health advice via its social media accounts. Learn more about our programs and how to connect with us.

If you have questions pertaining to your health, or that of a loved one, connect with a registered nurse from Health811 for free, secure, and confidential health advice. Service is available in English and French, with translation support also offered in other languages. Telephone: 8-1-1 or TTY: 1-866-797-0007.

Following and likes

OPH follows and likes other social media accounts. Please note that being followed or liked by OPH does not imply endorsement of any kind.

Re-posting

OPH will share health related and relevant content that adds value to followers and the residents of Ottawa. Please note, content shared by OPH does not imply OPH endorsement of the originator, of its messages, or of any partner or organization.

Feedback

OPH welcomes feedback about our programs and services, OPH is committed to continuous quality improvement where all feedback is dealt with fairly in a respectful, transparent fashion, as quickly as possible. For compliments, feedback, or suggestions, please complete our official feedback form.

@replies and comments

To ensure that the conversation remains in good taste and a positive experience for everyone involved, comments and replies should be respectful and appropriate, in addition to being relevant and related to the posted topic on the OPH social media account.

Any comments of the following nature will be blocked, muted or deleted:

  • Offensive, profane, hateful, insulting, rude, abusive, aggressive, violent, obscene, explicit, pornographic or sexual comments.
  • Content that promotes, fosters or perpetuates discrimination on the basis of race, national or ethnic origin, age, creed, gender, marital status, socio-economic status, physical or mental disability, or sexual orientation.
    • Personal attacks and/or defamatory statements.
    • Serious, unproven, unsupported, or inaccurate accusations.
    • Messages for advertising/marketing purposes.
    • Messages that conduct or encourage illegal activity.
    • Information that could compromise public safety, security or operations.
      • Messages that impersonate or misrepresent someone else.
      • Comments that include potentially harmful misinformation or disinformation.
      • Comments containing spam or posted by anonymous or robot accounts.
      • Unintelligible messages.

To protect your own privacy and the privacy of others, do not include personal information including but not limited to, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses in your @replies and messages.

OPH reserves the right to delete user’s comments that violate this notice, and the user’s access to our social media accounts may be revoked (and their account may be reported) to prevent further inappropriate comments.

Updated May 2025

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