Communication with our supporters is the lifeblood of the Ospreys and something we value highly. However, we also realise the need to draw the line on online abuse, hate and discrimination on social media platforms.
Ospreys Rugby’s social media accounts are intended to be a place to connect, share experiences and to have a healthy debate with one another.
We strive to create a safe and positive community on our social media channels, so we ask that all users heed the following Social Media Community Guidelines.
We encourage you to comment and interact with our social media accounts, as we want to build a positive and supportive online community. We welcome questions and comments, including constructive feedback and suggestions. We also understand that frustration and criticism is a part of professional sport, but please remember to stay on topic and be respectful with what you post.
To make this possible, we ask people to follow the guidelines below while interacting on our social media channels:
• Be respectful of others and their opinions.
• Do not make personal attacks in your comments towards players, coaches, staff, supporters or others.
• Do not post content that is discriminatory, obscene, inflammatory, harassing, hateful, threatening, profane or personally abusive.
• If an accusation is made against a named person at the Ospreys, for example at a member of staff or a player, that is libellous or defamatory we will take action.
• Do not post content with explicit or technical detail of self-harm or suicide.
• Do not post adverts for commercial products or services.
• Do not post repeatedly about issues that are off-topic i.e. spam
On Facebook and Instagram we use filters to automatically hide obscenities and will use our own discretion to hide comments that go against these guidelines. If we do so, we will comment to let you know this is the case, unless your comments have repeatedly contravened the policy and we have explained this to you previously.
Your comment may still be visible to you, but won't be visible to others using the site. On rare occasions, we may block users from the page if the nature of their comments does not change, but we will always warn you of this and highlight our commenting guidelines before doing so. Facebook's general community guidelines should also be considered when using the site.
We’d also like to remind you that any threats or implication of violence or harm may result in the Ospreys blocking a user permanently. In some extreme instances, Ospreys may seek legal counsel and seek criminal prosecution.
If you see something that doesn't seem right on any of our social media platforms do try and make us aware by contacting us directly on social media.
Policing
To help us address this we have adopted the following approach:
Yellow Card
We understand that in the heat of the moment, we make comments that we don’t necessarily mean which ends up causing harm or offence. With this in mind, users who don’t follow our social media guidelines will be given a warning and directed to this page.
Unlike on the field, Ospreys Rugby will allow two yellow cards to occur with the third resulting in a red card and a ban from all our channels.
Red Card
If a user, repeatedly violates our social media guidelines after being warned by a member of our team, they will be blocked.
The following actions will result in an immediate ban:
- Threats of violence or harm towards any member of staff or player.
- Spam accounts/Bots who repeatedly post adverts and links to websites not approved by Ospreys Rugby