The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government engages customers through many digital outlets, including lexingtonky.gov and LexCall 311. Communicating with the LFUCG through social media further enables customers to contact the LFUCG in a direct and meaningful way.
As designated (limited) public forums, the goal of the LFUCG social media pages that allow public interaction in the form of comments is to be a helpful medium conducive to real-time discussions and useful feedback regarding the topics and matters identified and raised by the LFUCG on its pages. However, it should be made clear to the public that LFUCG does not guarantee a response to any comments or messages sent on social media accounts. The public should be encouraged to communicate comments or messages to which they desire a response through traditional means like email.
Please be aware that when engaging with the LFUCG through social media, you are agreeing to:
Commenting on a LFUCG social media site
Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government agencies share information, images and video with the public through external social media websites and platforms. Comments made by the public to these sites are reviewed and, while comments will not be edited by LFUCG personnel, a comment may be deleted if it violates the comment policy described here.
- Comments containing malicious or harmful software.
- Comments posted by automatic software programs (i.e., bots).
- Comments containing advertisements, promotions, or solicitations of a commercial product or service.
- Comments containing confidential, personal or sensitive information including, but not limited to, private medical information protected by HIPAA, social security numbers, and third party phone numbers and/or postal addresses.
- Comments containing or linking to obscenity, which is defined as sexually explicit and/or pornographic content that is patently offensive, appeals to the prurient interest, and lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
- Comments expressly advocating direct violence or other illegal activity.
- Copyrighted or trademarked materials in violation of state or federal law or copyright rights of someone else, if the owner of that property notifies us that the property was posted in a comment on our social media account.
- Duplicate comments posted repeatedly within a short period of time, or spam.
- Comments that violate any local, state, or federal laws and/or is otherwise unlawful.
- Comments that expressly encourage or advocate LFUCG to illegally discriminate based on race, age, religion, gender, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, or any other legally protected class.
- Comments containing actual defamation against a specifically named person or organization, either as determined by a court or that are patently defamatory by easily discovered facts.
This comment policy is subject to amendment or modification at any time.
User created content
LFUCG is committed to fully complying with the freedom of speech clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and other similar legal obligations surrounding free speech. As such, there may be times when what some people perceive to be offensive comments left by a member of the public will remain visible on social media posts, if such comments are legally protected speech.
Social Media Representatives monitor social media accounts. However, neither they, nor the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, its divisions, departments, officials, or programs, are responsible for the content generated by users on these platforms. Users are welcome to submit or post content, including photographs and videos, to an official LFUCG site where the agency allows users to post content, the content meets the standards articulated in this Customer Use Policy and pertains to the subject of the social media site.
Users may only post their own, original content. Reproduced or borrowed content that reasonably appears to violate third party rights will be deleted. Users should have no expectation of privacy when posting to an LFUCG site. Any user created content or comment is the opinion of the user only, and publication of any user created content or comment does not necessarily imply endorsement of, or agreement by, the Social Media Representative, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, or its divisions, departments, officials, or programs.
Questions, Concerns, Appeals
Questions or concerns regarding the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government's social media activity and/or this Customer Use Policy should be submitted to pio@lexingtonky.gov.
To appeal the removal of a comment, the user must submit an email or letter to the Division of Government Communications at pio@lexingtonky.gov within five business days of the removal.
Upon receipt of an appeal, the Division of Government Communications will review the written appeal, the comment that was removed, and the Social Media Customer Use Policy to determine whether the comment violates the Social Media Customer Use Policy. If the appeal is successful, the comment may, if possible, be restored for public view, or the user may be permitted to repost the comment. If it is determined that the comment violates the Social Media Customer Use Policy, the user will be notified that the appeal is denied.
If LFUCG determines that a user has violated these terms and conditions on three or more occasions within a twelve-month period, LFUCG may block or ban the offending user from the social media account where the violations occurred. If LFUCG blocks or bans a user, LFUCG will (a) reasonably attempt to notify the user; (b) describe the violation(s); and (c) explain the appeal process. If LFUCG is unable to provide notification, the user may submit a letter or email to the Division of Government Communications at pio@lexingtonky.gov to inquire regarding the decision to block or ban the user. Upon receiving communication from the blocked or banned user, LFUCG will describe the violation(s) and explain the appeal process.
If the appeal is successful and the user has not violated this policy three times within a rolling 12- month period, LFUCG will unblock or unban the user from the social media account. If the appeal is not successful, LFUCG's decision is final.