Bury Football Club prides itself on being an inclusive and diverse football club, where everyone can feel safe and welcome, including our supporters, players and staff. We believe Social Media is an important tool for the Club to connect with our local and global fanbase and therefore our ethos of being responsible and respectful extends to our Social Media community. We want everyone to be #PartofIt.

We understand football is an emotive game and tensions can often run high, but our commitment to being a safe space for all always remains.

This Social Media Policy exists to ensure everyone understands what is acceptable and what is not when engaging with our channels so that everyone has a positive and safe experience.

The purpose of Bury FC’s Social Media

1. To communicate key updates about the Club to our followers, including the latest team news and other Club communication.
2. To inform followers about other activities run by the Club and our stakeholders, including community work and events.
3. To entertain our followers with a variety of content, including photos, videos and written features about all teams.
4. To provide exposure for other parts of the Club and our partners, including ticketing, retail, commercial and hospitality.

Our official Social Media channels

In addition to the Club website (buryfc.co.uk), Bury FC operates on the following social media channels:

1. Facebook (Club)
2. Instagram (Men / Women)
3. X (Men / Women / U23)
4. YouTube (Club)
5. TikTok (Men)
6. LinkedIn (Club)

Channels may be added or removed as the Club sees fit.

Reasonable conduct on Social Media

Bury FC encourages the following on social media:

1. Positive engagement and debate
2. Open and inclusive dialogue and discussion
3. Constructive criticism and negative opinion will always be tolerated so long as it does not meet below descriptions of unacceptable conduct.

Unacceptable Conduct on Social Media

Bury FC will not tolerate any behaviour which club officials believe is:

• Discriminatory: Abusive, obscene or otherwise offensive
• Libellous or defamatory
• In violation of any intellectual property rights
• In violation of any law or regulation
• Graphic, sensitive or offensive imagery
• Bringing the Club into disrepute
• Targeting or harassing players, staff or volunteers
• Spam

This content risks harming those who see it and detracts from what should be an enjoyable experience for our Social Media community.

How we identify breaches of our Social Media Policy

Bury FC will identify breaches of our Social Media Code of Conduct on a case-by-case basis with regular monitoring of our channels by members of our internal team.

Consequences of breaching our Social Media Policy

The Club reserve the right to remove or report any content on our Social Media channels and will take the following actions:

• We will remove any posts which we feel are in breach of our Social Media Policy
• We may report serious offences to the relevant Social Media network
• In extreme circumstances we may report posts to the authorities, for example, if we believe the offence amounts to hate speech or threats of violence and/or criminal behaviour

The Club reserve the right to block users from Club channels at its discretion and will do so in the following instances:

• We will block users who have posted something we deem worthy of reporting to a Social Media network or authority
• We will block users who consistently post inappropriate, harassing or abusive comments which we deem worthy of hiding or deleting
• We will block any new accounts set up by a user who has already had their primary account blocked for a previous offense

Individuals may also see further action taken against them for their online actions, in line with the club policies.

Right to Appeal

The Club understand that regrettable actions can be taken in the heat of the moment, so we will consider unblocking users at our discretion.

You may request a review by sending an email to media@buryfc.co.uk

We may choose to unblock your account and you may be issued with a written warning, explaining why your behaviour was unacceptable and potentially harmful to others.

Private Messages

Due to the high volume of private messages the Club receives on Social Media, we are unable to respond to all of these directly.

For all general enquiries, the club has set up a method of opening dialogue with supporters. To direct your enquiry to the club please visit our contact pages here.

Feedback

If you have any comments or suggestions about our Social Media activity, we welcome all feedback via email: media@buryfc.co.uk