Social Media Comment Policy for the General Public

Social Media Comment Policy for the General Public

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Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is active in several social media platforms, including FacebookTwitterInstagram, YouTube, and blogs. Through social media, we hope to engage in an ongoing dialogue with individuals and organizations who are interested in cancer care, research, and education.

We encourage your comments and opinions. As much as we’d like to, we can’t respond to every comment, but we hope you’ll join our discussions. We aim to keep the conversation positive and engaging, and we hope you do as well. To make sure this happens, please be truthful and polite when you post. Also, please keep the conversation on topic, and avoid posting spam, such as chain letters and advertisements. We monitor our feeds regularly, and we will remove any inappropriate comments.

Our social media resources don’t substitute for professional medical recommendations. We also can’t comment on the specifics of your case or answer questions regarding your medical treatment. Please consult your medical provider with any specific questions that you have about your health.

Please remember that medical information is covered by privacy laws. However, information and photos posted by the public on MSK’s social media accounts are not “protected health information” and are not protected by U.S. health privacy laws. The Internet is not private, and there is no such thing as a “private” social media site. Information that you post will never go away, sometimes even after you delete it. Therefore, we suggest that you refrain from posting detailed medical and personal information about yourself or others, including family and friends. If you choose to post your medical information, it will be accessible to all others on the site. If you are posting medical information about others, please ensure you have their approval to post their private information.

Social media posts need to consider the commitment we make to all members of the public in terms of privacy while on site at MSK. Photography and video recording is not permitted in common/public areas at MSK. If filming or taking photography for personal use, only share it with only those people who need the information.

By engaging with MSK’s social media networks, you grant MSK the right to reproduce, distribute, publish, display, edit, modify, create derivative works from, and otherwise use all of your posted content for any purpose and in any media without any legal or monetary obligation or consideration to you or the author.

We reserve the right to review comments posted on our social media sites and to remove any that violate our policy. We also reserve the right to block repeat offenders from continuing to post.

In addition, postings that appear on our social media sites do not necessarily reflect the views of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. When posts contain links to external websites, those sites do not necessarily reflect our views. Also, if we choose to follow a Twitter user, share a Facebook post, or comment on an Instagram post, we are not endorsing that user or content.

Finally, anyone who posts on our social media site agrees to indemnify us against any legal claims related to posted material, such as damages, losses, liabilities, judgments, costs, or expenses.

Thanks for reviewing this policy, and we look forward to interacting with you.