Your Responsibilities

Social media makes it easy to seek information, talk about political topics, and express political opinions – often in creative and engaging ways. It also allows connection with like-minded people one might not normally connect with. BC Public Service employees, like all Canadians, have a right to political activity.

As a public service employee, how you engage in public dialogue on topics such as political parties and government policy has to take into account some special considerations because of the Oath of Employment and the Standards of Conduct. Your social media activity must not demonstrate disloyalty or a lack of impartiality in the conduct of your duties, as outlined in the Oath and Standards of Conduct. If you are required as part of your work to engage in public dialogue about your work and the work of government, your words and behaviour must be impartial, and perceived as impartial.

Specifically, under the Standards of Conduct, BC Public Service employees must not jeopardize the perception of impartiality in the performance of their duties through making public comments regarding ministry policies or entering into public debate about them. You must also avoid using your government position to lend weight to your personal opinions. Even if you don’t personally agree with government directives or policies, you must avoid making those comments publicly. It’s important for the public to be confident they can trust employees to deliver the best service possible.

Making Public Comments – Some Tips

What looks and feels “public” online may be different from your face-to-face life. It’s up to you to be informed and take cautious steps to ensure you’re not making inappropriate public comments or using your position to lend weight to your opinion. These steps may include a combination of some or all of the following:

• Not writing comments, Twitter posts, or blog posts that criticize government policy or direction.
• Not campaigning for a political party or initiative using your government email address or any other self-identification as a public service employee.
• Reviewing your online activity to check that it appears impartial.
• Not identifying yourself as a public service employee through your profile, photos posted, etc. if you are going to be engaging in public dialogue about political topics.
• Not listing your job when signing online petitions.
• Restricting who views your comments and regularly reviewing your privacy settings.

During an Election

There are more special considerations when social media during an election period.

There are specific guidelines for employees during the election period, which includes the interregnum (beginning when the election is called and ending on election day) and transition (from election day until the new cabinet is sworn in). To ensure strict compliance with the Election Act, all Government of B.C. advertising, communications, internet/web updates, social media and citizen engagement activities are limited to public health and safety information, statutory advertising (statutory meaning advertising required by statute, regulation or policy) and responding to the public regarding services.

During this time, ministries are not allowed to publish content that may be perceived as promotional of government priorities, programs, services, policies, etc. For more information, consult the GCPE Guidelines for Government Use of Social Media by B.C. Public Servants. Employees should also be particularly conscious of their personal use of social media during an election period, because personal comments and posts about ministry work may be perceived by the public as “new promotion or engagement” and therefore contrary to the Election Act.