Online Communications Code of Conduct

We’re a charity caring for the Royal Collection and looking after visitors to the royal palaces.

Our website, social media channels and other forms of online communications are intended to help anyone to discover more about the Collection and royal palaces. If you are interacting with us online, we welcome you asking questions, sharing relevant views, commenting and engaging in constructive discussions about the topics we post about. 

To help ensure that everyone has a positive experience as part of our online community, we have created this Code of Conduct. In general, we simply ask that you respect others in the community and respect the people featured in and creating our content and working for our organisation. 

We retain the right to moderate content. This means that we might hide or delete comments and/or ban or report to the relevant social media platform comments or users engaged in activities that we reasonably believe might be:

Abusive

Content that uses hateful, defamatory, obscene, or discriminatory language. Any comments or posts that harass others or that could be deemed as offensive will be removed*. The user responsible may also be blocked or banned for posting repeated or highly abusive content.

Off topic

Content (whether positive or negative) which is not about the subject matter of the original post or Royal Collection Trust in general. This may include:

• Trying to derail the conversation towards a different topic
• “Spamming” by repeating the same or similar comments
• Content which is unrelated to the topic or activity of Royal Collection Trust

About an individual’s appearance or personal attributes

Avoid commenting on the personal attributes (including appearance, voice and mannerisms) of those represented in our content unless their appearance is the topic of the original post (e.g. make-up, hair styles or clothing from previous eras). These comments may be removed, along with such comments about other commentors’ personal attributes. Comments which sexually objectify individuals will also be moderated.

Illegal

Content that is illegal or that suggests, supports or glamorises illegal activity.

Posing a safeguarding risk

Any content that might put children or vulnerable adults at risk.

Containing personal information

Public content that discloses personal information, including but not limited to the name, address, telephone, mobile, email address or any other personal data in respect of any individual.

Infringing copyright

Content that might infringe any copyright, database right, trademark or other intellectual property rights of any other person or organisation.

Misrepresenting identity

Content where the author is attempting to impersonate another person or misrepresent their identity or affiliation with another person or organisation.

Defamatory

Content that might be damaging to someone else’s reputation.

In contempt of court

Content that might be in contempt of court (anything that could affect the outcome of a court case).

Posting for financial gain

Any links, images, or comments that advertise or promote individuals, goods, services, businesses, or causes not related to the post or Royal Collection Trust will be removed. Please do not create posts or comments that serve as advertisements or promotional tools.

Containing inappropriate links

Content that links to files or websites that contain malicious software or content that itself breaches this Code of Conduct.

Breaking a social media platform’s own rules or guidelines

Content that breaches the rules of the social media platform on which it is posted.

We will not reply to comments which break the above rules. We may report them to the social media platform where they break that platform’s rules, or to the police where they break the law.

*Please note that it is an offence under the UK’s Public Order Act 1986 for a person to use threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour that causes, or is likely to cause, another person harassment, alarm or distress.