Social Media Moderation Policy

When disputes arise in our university around major social and political issues, we err on the side of tolerating free speech provided such speech does not overstep legal boundaries. To learn more, read the university's statement about respectful debate.

SFU welcomes participation in discussions, but we expect conversations to follow the conventions of polite discourse. SFU social media moderators will not tolerate comments that are offensive or are harassing in their approach. We also reserve the right to remove comments that meet the following conditions: 

  • contain abusive, obscene, indecent or offensive language;
  • include defamatory, abusive, harassing or hateful remarks or make unproven or unsupported accusations against individuals or organizations;
  • spread disinformation, disproven medical claims or harmful advice;
  • constitute spam, promote services or products;
  • invade anyone’s privacy or impersonate anyone;
  • are far off-topic;
  • are posted without the necessary rights, licenses and consents;
  • encourage conduct that may or would constitute a criminal offence or give rise to civil liability, or that otherwise violates any local, provincial, national or international law or regulation anywhere in the world;
  • contain long embedded URLs;
  • contain excessive links or contain code;
  • identify any publicly-elected representative or candidate regardless of their political affiliation, whether those comments are supportive or critical; and 
  • are contrary to the principles of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

If you have questions about this moderation policy or how we apply it, please contact: socialmedia@sfu.ca