• Institutional social media accounts: accounts on social networking platforms that are authorized by and belong to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
• All institutional social media accounts and their content shall be consistent with the aims, activities and purposes of FAO. The use of social media must abide by the Organization’s core values, including integrity, independence, impartiality, respect for diversity and the equality and inviolable dignity of all persons irrespective of, inter alia, race, gender, religion, language or nationality.
• The posting of content on institutional social media accounts shall be governed by this FAO Social Media Policy and FAO Staff rules.

Please keep in mind the following: 

• Do not establish social media channels on FAO’s behalf or use FAO’s name and logo.
• Do not directly upload FAO content (documents, photos, presentations, videos, etc.) to personal accounts. This material should be uploaded to respective FAO repositories.
• Protect confidential information – including internal correspondence (emails for example) or any third party information made available to the Organization – and respect embargoes on unreleased publications or other work in progress
• Do not post anonymous comments or publish content related to FAO under a pseudonym or false name.
• If posting your own point of view on topics relevant to the work of FAO, add a disclaimer: “The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent FAO’s views, positions, strategies or opinions.
• Sometimes professional and personal lives intersect. On social media just as in the office, you must abide by FAO’s code of ethical conduct, Standards of Conduct for the International Civil Service and FAO staff rules and regulations.
• Respect your audience and avoid negative personal comments or inflammatory subjects.
• Respect the privacy rights of colleagues, partners and beneficiaries, particularly when posting photos and videos. Posting personal or identifiable information (including times, location and travel information) may raise safety and security concerns.
• If you publish on a third-party website or a personal blog, use a disclaimer similar to: “The information and views posted here do not necessarily represent FAO’s views, positions, strategies or opinions.”
• In case you manage FAO social media account, discretion should be used when deciding to delete inappropriate or unacceptable content. Allow user-generated content that may be off topic or critical, but is not offensive. If you come across misrepresentation of FAO’s work, correct it with factual information and, whenever possible, a link to additional information. Notable comments or trends should be shared with supervisors and/or forwarded to substantive departments for information purposes.

FAO personnel are responsible for ensuring that the standards set out in the Policy are met. Failure to observe these requirements may lead to administrative actions, under FAO Manual Section 330 (intranet), according to the gravity of the case.