Social media guidelines

The guidelines below set out how the Organ and Tissue Authority (OTA) will engage with the public through our digital channels – social media and the DonateLife website.

Our Digital channels

We use the following channels:

What you can expect from us

We take communicating through digital channels very seriously.

  • We will never ask you for personal information through social media.
  • We monitor our social media accounts during business hours, Monday to Friday.
  • We will engage with you in a professional and timely manner.
  • The posts we make on social media sites are official and on behalf of the OTA.

What we expect from you

We want to ensure that everyone that uses our digital channels have a positive experience.

We encourage you to contribute to our channels and have open and honest discussions, whilst being respectful of your fellow community members.

To support a positive experience on our social media channels, we reserve the right to ignore, block or delete posts and users for any reason.

When posting or commenting on our channels, we ask that you:

  • Protect your personal privacy. Do not post any personal information (for example, names, email addresses, private addresses or phone numbers).
  • Please, don't share dates. We welcome and encourage our followers to share their donation and transplantation stories with us and our followers. Please be mindful that organ and tissue donation in Australia is anonymous, so we simply ask you do not share specific dates of donation or transplantation on our pages.
  • Keep on topic. Keep comments relevant to the original post. We may remove comments and posts that are not related to the original post.
  • Represent your own views. Do not impersonate or falsely represent any other person or organisation.
  • Treat us like you would like to be treated. We have real people monitoring these channels so please be considerate on comments that could directly impact us.
  • Be polite. Do not make defamatory or slanderous comments, do not be insulting, abusive, provocative, hateful, obscene, offensive or threatening.
  • Don’t spam. Do not post multiple versions of the same view or make excessive postings on a particular issue.
  • Don’t make accusations. Do not make unproven or unsupported accusations against individuals or organisations.
  • Don’t discriminate. Do not incite hatred on the basis of any personal characteristic, including on the basis of race, gender, religion, marital or domestic status, disability, sexuality or age.
  • No sales pitch. Do not promote commercial interests in your posts. Content that is fundraising or selling products will be removed.
  • No politics. Do not post or upload overtly political comments. DonateLife is about raising awareness of organ and tissue donation, it is not about debating political policy.
  • Any comments or messages not adhering to the above will be removed.

Following and sharing

From time to time, we may choose to republish (e.g. 'retweet', 'share' or reference) social media content (e.g. tweets, events, posts) that contains information or otherwise links to material related to the work that we do. A 'retweet' or 'share' by the OTA does not constitute endorsement.

We may choose to 'follow' (or 'like') organisations or individuals involved with, or actively discussing, relevant issues. Individuals and organisations choosing to follow us may be followed in return.

Online enquiries

We respond to enquiries sent through the DonateLife website and Facebook Messenger. We only respond to online enquiries or messages Monday to Friday during business hours. We aim to respond to all enquiries as quickly as possible during these hours, however some enquiries may take longer to resolve. 

Disclaimer

By accessing our social media pages, you are agreeing with the terms and conditions of that social media platform and their terms of use. We encourage you to read this information before participating in social media activities.

We do not endorse or support the comments, opinions or statements posted by users on our social media accounts. Any information or material placed online by users, including advice and opinions, is the view and responsibility of those users and does not necessarily represent the views of the OTA.

We strive to review the content of this page on a regular basis. However, there may be times when offensive comments (that do not meet this policy) appear on the page before they can be removed. The OTA reserves the right to remove comments at its sole discretion based on this policy.

Links to external websites, social media profiles, videos or images are provided for convenience and reference. These sites and their content are not under the control of the OTA. The inclusion of any link or reference does not imply endorsement of that website, service or person by the OTA. We are not responsible for the information or accuracy of external sites and are not liable for any loss or inconvenience arising from their use.

The OTA does not endorse or control any advertising that may be displayed on their accounts and pages.

We want all Australians to talk about organ and tissue donation. If you want to be a donor, make sure you tell your family and friends.

Registering is easy and only takes one minute. All you need is your phone, Medicare card and one minute to register.

It doesn’t matter how old you are, your medical history, your lifestyle, what country you’re from or how healthy you are — you can still register as an organ and tissue donor.

The Organ and Tissue Authority acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We pay our respects to them and their cultures, and to elders both past and present.

Freedom of information, Privacy, Social media guidelines, Terms and conditions and Accessibility