Social media community guidelines

The Ministry of Health engages with the community and provides important safety and public health information through accounts on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. We encourage contributions to our pages but reserve the right to remove posts that violate our community guidelines. Please keep all comments and posts relevant and respectful.

Social media is not a diagnostic platform – if you have concerns about your health, please get in touch with your GP or contact Healthline for free at 0800 611 116. In an emergency, always call 111.

If we receive information that suggests anyone may be at risk of harm, we may share it with Police or Netsafe to keep them safe. However, our channels are not an emergency service and are not monitored at all hours. If you or anyone else is at risk of hurting themselves or others, please call 111 if it is an emergency. Alternatively, search the Health Information and Services website for Mental health services and information.

The Ministry of Health reserves the right to:

  • determine what constitutes inappropriate content
  • hide or entirely remove inappropriate content
  • ban users from its social media communities.

We may delete posts which contain:

  • racist, sexist, homophobic or other forms of hate-speech
  • potentially defamatory statements
  • confidential information (including contact details and personal or health information)
  • misinformation
  • spam or advertising
  • offensive language, abuse or threats
  • off-topic or irrelevant information to the thread of conversation
  • nudity, pornography or child abuse
  • excessive violence
  • content that is illegal, gives instructions for illegal activity or advocates illegal activities.

If you find content on one of our official pages which you feel breaches these guidelines, please let us know.

We may use comments and messages submitted to our social media pages for reporting purposes in anonymous form.

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