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As UMSU Student Representatives and Staff, it is your responsibility to moderate the content uploaded to your department’s social media pages or posted by users in the comments section. Moderating your socials is important to ensure that everyone (both yourself and the people who visit your pages) feels safe online and prevents users from spreading harmful or defamatory content. 

According to a High Court ruling made in September 2021, social media page owners are now liable for any comments from the general public on posts they put online — which means it is super important to ensure you are monitoring your social media pages on a regular basis. 

UMSU has a Facebook Terms of Use which you may find handy to link to on your channels. 

How to Moderate Your Socials 

  • Create a schedule for you and your co-workers to check in your social media pages:  Moderating your socials isn’t time-consuming at all if you’re prepared! We recommend logging in once or twice a day to have a quick look at all the activity on your page. Share the workload and create a schedule so you can alternate which days you should be checking in. 

  • Get familiar with the UMSU Social Media Policy & Guidelines:  Not sure what you should be looking for? The UMSU Social Media Policy & Guidelines contain a detailed list of what is or isn’t acceptable behaviour on UMSU social media pages. These guidelines apply to UMSU Student Representatives and Staff. You can also check out the Terms of Service for visitors on our pages. 

  • Contact the UMSU Comms team if you need help:  If you have any concerns about activity on your socials, fill out the Social Media Moderation Support form and the Comms team will be able to assist you.  

Social Media Moderation Support 

When moderating your social media accounts, you may consider comments or content posted by followers to be in breach of UMSU’s Social Media policy 

When encountering any risk on social media, please get in touch with the Comms team for advice and potential management/escalation via the  Social Media Moderation Support form. 

Please direct any requests for support to this form rather than the Comms inbox. 

Dealing with Trolls 

Social media trolls are people who post inflammatory and digressive, extraneous or off-topic messages online with the intent of provoking readers into displaying an emotional response, whether for the troll’s amusement or to achieve another specific agenda. 

So, what should you do if there are trolls on your page? 

  1. Do not respond! Trolls love to receive responses and will often target pages and posts that they disagree with purely to elicit a response from their target (a.k.a. you). It is important that if you do receive any trolling, negative or discriminatory comments or messages across your UMSU pages online that you do not engage with them. This applies whether the comments are made in private (e.g., via direct message) or in a public place (e.g., the comments on a post). 

  2. If you or your page is targeted by trolls, or you believe someone in the comments has posted something harmful or defamatory, hide the comment and report it to the Comms team via the  Social Media Moderation Support form. Please make sure to complete the form with all the information you have so they can help you hide comments, block and/or report the user. All instances must be reported to the Comms team as they are responsible for collating all instances of harmful comments and trolling and can provide an overview of whether it has occurred across multiple UMSU accounts and will liaise with the Social Media platform directly on behalf of UMSU to advocate for users who should be removed. 

Minimising unauthorised posting on Facebook. There are several ways to do this, we recommend turning off the ‘Reviews’ function and also disabling posts by other people on your Page. This will give you fewer things you need to moderate and minimise the risk of unwanted material ending up on your Page. 

Images 

When posting images on your social media accounts and the website, you must ensure you have obtained consent (UMSU_Image_Release_Form.pdf) or notified people that your event is being photographed (we have A-frame signage and notification cards available that can help you with this process — just ask!). This is not only a requirement according to the UMSU Privacy Policy but also Australian law. 

Sometimes, you may receive requests from people to remove images of them from your social pages, even if they have previously given their consent. This may be requested via DM or email. Please take down the image. 

When in doubt, use the Social Media Moderation Support form and we’ll advise you. 

After-hours Support 

Sometimes, you may require assistance moderating your socials outside of business hours. If you find harmful content appearing on your socials in the evenings or on the weekend, there are still steps you can take to protect yourself and others online when the Comms team is not available. BUT, please ensure you still submit a report to the Comms team so you can be provided with appropriate support next time the team is working. 

  • Hide or turn off comments:  Sometimes the best move after hours is to turn off commenting, or hide a comment until the Comms team can provide you further assistance. Most social media platforms have the option for you to hide or restrict a comment by right-clicking on it. Hiding a comment — as opposed to deleting it — can prevent situations from escalation. From their perspective, the comment is still online, but to others who visit your page, the comment is not visible. 

  • Report the content to the relevant social media platform: Often the behaviour of trolls will also violate a social media platform’s Community Guidelines, as well as the UMSU Terms of Use. If you report the user or their comment/s to the platform, they may be able to remove this person for you. 

Additional Resources 

Dealing with or witnessing harmful content on your social media pages can be tough. If you are feeling distressed or upset by anything that you experience on or offline, please make sure that you raise this with your Divisional Manager who will be able to provide you with additional support and resources. For OBs, please seek support from your Volunteer Coordinator, or any Divisional Manager. 



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