The goal of the St. Mary’s County Health Department (SMCHD) is to share ideas and information with as many individuals as possible. Our policy is to accept the majority of comments made to our social media profiles.

We encourage participants to be civil and abide by the usage guidelines established by the social media platform. In addition, please be aware of the following:

• We monitor SMCHD-sponsored social media profiles and pages but are not responsible for user content.
• Comments, links, and images posted by non-SMCHD personnel may not necessarily represent the views of SMCHD.
• Content posted on the SMCHD’s social media accounts becomes a public record.
• Our profiles and pages may contain website links and advertising from the social media platform. This does not constitute an endorsement by SMCHD.
• We do not allow profanity, obscenity, vulgarity, advertising, or political campaigning in our social media efforts, and we will remove such content.
• Other posts that may be removed include hate speech, nudity, intellectual property infringements, and defamation of a person or people.
• We will also remove posts that are considered inappropriate, off-topic, excessively repetitive, and/or disruptive to the online community and our social media efforts. Discussions of political views and philosophies should be addressed in other forums.
• Please do not post personal information such as address, social security number, health conditions, and other confidential/private information.
• SMCHD will answer questions during state business office hours as time permits. However, be cautious of answers from other users; the information may not be correct.
• If you have an immediate concern, we recommend contacting the specific division, program, or property using telephone or e-mail. Visit smchd.org/about to find contact information for SMCHD.
• Information shared on SMCHD’s social media platforms is not intended as a final rule for legal situations. There may be specific subjects – such as litigation, licensing processes, permitting, etc. – which we will not discuss using social media outlets.
• We understand that social media is a 24/7 medium; however, our moderation capabilities are not. We may not see every inappropriate comment right away, and we trust in the maturity of our community to ignore personal attacks and negative speech and to respond politely.

Violations of the above guidelines may result in the author’s ban from all SMCHD-sponsored social media efforts. This can occur without warning and at our discretion. Please contact smchd.pr@maryland.gov with questions.