Parliamentary Budget Officer’s Twitter Policy
The primary objective of the Canadian Parliamentary Budget Officer’s Twitter accounts, @pbo_dpb (in English) @dpb_pbo (in French), is to promote the publications and services of the PBO.
They complement the tools by which parliamentarians and the public are currently made aware of new and current PBO research publications. The two accounts are administered by members of the PBO team.
The PBO’s Twitter policy, contained in this document, outlines such matters as how the PBO Twitter account is operated, if and when the PBO responds to @replies, the availability and frequency of PBO tweets, compliance with the Official Languages Act, and confidentiality, among others.
Following and unfollowing
Only those followers who do not comply with the terms of use will be removed or blocked. The administrators of the two accounts do not commit to follow back their followers.
Direct messages and @replies;
The PBO reads over @replies and direct messages from followers. When a message containing a more specific question is received from a parliamentarian or his/her staff, the PBO will reply privately by email or via a bilateral meeting.
Only relevant and courteous comments will be accepted. Only messages written in English and French will be considered. The administrators reserve the right to take action when any follower writes messages containing any of the following:
- Racist, sexist or derogatory language
- Hate speech
- Sexually explicit content
- Personal or slanderous attacks
- Copyright violations (e.g., copying and pasting content without a source or without authorization)
- Privacy violations (e.g., posting private information such as telephone numbers or email addresses)
- Threats or harassment
- Spam messages
- Commercial promotions or releases
- Unlawful content or content pertaining to unlawful activities
Further, the PBO may ban and/or report users whose messages contain any of the above.
In addition, the administrators reserve the right to reply to comments that may affect the image of the PBO. These responses will be drafted in collaboration with PBO management.
Links to Other Websites
All links inserted in the PBO tweets are to be limited to official pages of organizations relevant to PBO activities (e.g. OECD, IMF).
Retweets
The administrators of the PBO Twitter accounts may retweet relevant messages from other users. In some cases, translation may be required.
Hashtags
The PBO reserves the right to use hashtags of interest to all parliamentarians.
Tweet Frequency and Availability
The tweet frequency varies widely, depending on the parliamentary calendar. The PBO is not committed to sending a predetermined number of tweets per week.
While the Senate and the House of Commons are sitting, the PBO will update and monitor the Twitter accounts from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (ET), Monday to Friday. Other times, the PBO will update and monitor the accounts during business hours.
The PBO may, however, not be able to update or monitor Twitter at certain times due to acts of omission of third party servers. As such, the PBO accepts no responsibility for the Twitter network becoming unresponsive or unavailable.
Official languages
The Twitter interface is available in both of Canada’s official languages. The language may be set in each user’s account preferences.
The PBO respects the Official Languages Act and is committed to ensuring that its products are available in both English and French and are of equal quality. Users can simply view the appropriate Twitter account in English or in French.
Copyright
Information posted is subject to the Copyright Act of Canada.
Accessibility
A more accessible version of Twitter is located at www.accessibletwitter.com.
Twitter is administered by an independent service provider and as such is not subject to the Parliament of Canada’s policy on accessible websites. Anyone encountering difficulty accessing the information on our Twitter accounts should consult the PBO web site where the information is provided in another format.
Confidentiality
Twitter is a third-party service provider. Users are encouraged to read the Twitter Privacy Policy.
The PBO respects the privacy of its followers. Information that is shared with the proposed Twitter accounts is used only for the purpose for which it was provided and is kept in accordance with information management practices. Information provided may be used for security or other internal purposes.
As a best practice, users are advised not to share personal information, such as home addresses and telephone numbers, photographs containing images of identifiable individuals or any other information consisting of personal information as defined in section 3 of the Privacy Act.
Questions about the PBO Twitter accounts
For any questions regarding the use of the PBO Twitter accounts, guidelines and its administration, please contact the PBO.
