Netiquette of our social media channels
Welcome to the social media channels of the Kevelaer city administration! Nice to have you here! We have created these channels to optimize the flow of information and communication between the city administration and citizens and to provide you with news about the pilgrimage town of Kevelaer. We are delighted if our contributions and topics encourage you to interact and discuss.
We welcome all feedback, comments and messages. We therefore attach great importance to ensuring that everyone can have their say and that no one is excluded. However, we must insist that contributions are always formulated constructively and objectively, even in the event of differences in content.
Helpful hints for writing a commentary:
- Refer to the topic of the post.
- Discuss factually. Unobjective and/or offensive comments have no place here.
- Give reasons for your opinion - especially if you wish to disagree (constructively).
- Remain polite, as you would in a personal conversation.
- Remember that written words do not convey gestures and facial expressions. Either express yourself clearly or use a suitable "emoji" such as a "winking smiley".
- Do not use swear words.
- Please refrain from provoking others personally.
- Remember that there is a person behind every page reading all the messages and comments.
- Do not hide behind anonymity, but use your real name if possible.
- Please understand that we usually address our followers on our channels as "Du" has established itself as a common form of address on these platforms and don't be annoyed if you are not addressed as "Du".
- Make sure that you have the rights to distribute the content you publish. Quotations must be correctly identified as such, even if they are well known. Observe copyright law.
- Respect the personal rights of your fellow human beings and the right to your own image. Do not publish any personal, sensitive data such as addresses or telephone numbers.
Netiquette
We look forward to a lively exchange via the channels and are very interested in your constructive feedback. Nevertheless, we must insist on a few important discussion rules. We reserve the right to remove individual posts in the event of violations and to exclude users from our channels in the event of serious or repeated violations. The exclusion is only temporary if the users distance themselves from the comments that violate the netiquette and assure us that they will adhere to the discussion framework in future. Subsequent removal or blocking is also possible.
When assessing and classifying comments, we naturally observe the principle of proportionality. There is no entitlement to the publication of all contributions. We therefore do not censor, but rather make use of the domiciliary rights of our online offerings in order to ensure a constructive exchange and the participation of all.
These are our rules:
- Any form of discrimination or insult against people or groups based on their origin, religious affiliation, nationality, physical condition, sexual identity, gender, income or age is unacceptable.
- Offensive, inciting, defamatory, pornographic, inflammatory, harmful to minors or even criminal statements are not activated, hidden or removed. Since the Act to Combat Right-Wing Extremism and Hate Crime 2020 came into force, we have been obliged to report certain serious cases, including threats of dangerous bodily harm or the approval of crimes that have not yet been committed, to the relevant authorities.
- We reserve the right to press charges if a criminal offense has been committed. Anyone who publicly insults others online can be punished with up to two years' imprisonment instead of up to one year (Section 185 StGB).
- In the case of links to external websites, we reserve the right to check linked content and, if necessary, to remove the URL or the entire comment.
- Generally refrain from sending commercial messages, election or party advertising, calls for demonstrations, campaigns and petitions. This also applies to so-called spam. Such content will be removed.
- Unprovable theories or unsubstantiated claims and suspicions may also be removed, especially if they are defamatory or damaging to business.
- Comments that were generated automatically/machine-generated (especially bots) or are obviously part of a campaign (shitstorms) can also be removed or their senders blocked.
All users are responsible for the contributions they publish.
By submitting a comment on our platforms and channels, you agree that your statements may become publicly accessible and may be quoted.
You can read more about our privacy policy here: https://www.kevelaer.de/footer/datenschutz/datenschutzinformation-meta-plattformen/
We look forward to the exchange!
The mayor of the pilgrimage town of Kevelaer
Dr. Dominik Pichler