Policy on the Use of Social Media

2. Content

We use social media to share with you:

  • information about your rights and obligations under the Official Languages Act;
  • links to news releases, speeches, reports and other documents from the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages;
  • messages from the Commissioner;
  • announcements about important meetings between the Commissioner and government ministers or politicians;
  • links to relevant information produced and disseminated by other individuals or organizations; and
  • various videos and images related to the official languages.

3. Our social media presence

The Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages’ Communications team manages the social media accounts on behalf of the organization. We update and monitor our accounts only during normal working hours: Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Eastern Time). Occasionally, we post messages outside working hours.

4. Links to other web sites and content from external sources

We provide these links and content from external sources solely for your convenience. The Office of the Commissioner takes no responsibility for the accuracy, currency or reliability of this information. We make no guarantees in this regard, and we do not endorse the sites or their content.

The Office of the Commissioner is not responsible for the content on external sites.

5. The Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages’ favourite pages and subscriptions

The Office of the Commissioner’s favourite social media pages include accounts belonging to individuals, not for profit organizations, associations and government agencies.

The fact that we follow certain people or groups does not mean that we support them or endorse what they say.

6. “Liking” and following the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages

Our social media accounts are open to the public, which means that anyone with Internet access can view the content.

When you click on the “Like” button on our Facebook page, you are authorizing the Office of the Commissioner to post updates on your news feed. Similarly, you can authorize the Office of the Commissioner to post news on your X and LinkedIn feeds by becoming a follower. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel.

7. Comments and interaction

We strongly encourage you to leave comments and take part in the conversation on our social media accounts. We read all comments and messages, and forward all relevant information to the appropriate staff member.

However, we cannot reply to every message and comment we receive on our social media accounts.

The Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages is not responsible for comments left by users. These comments represent the opinions of those who post them, not those of the Office of the Commissioner.

Please note that the Office of the Commissioner does not review user comments before they are posted, but we do reserve the right to withdraw comments at our discretion if we feel they do not respect our comments etiquette (see section 9).

If we think a comment or question requires a general, public reply, we may produce a response to all users, which we will post on our other channels, such as our website or other social media platforms. In some cases, we may need to translate and repeat the comment in order to provide context for our response. If you wish to remain anonymous, please send us your questions or comments in a private message.

When you send a private message, we will answer with a private message. If we think the comment or question requires a general, public reply, we may translate and mention its content elsewhere, but we will not disclose any information that might identify the sender.

8. Filing a complaint with the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages

We do not consider comments posted on our social media accounts, mentions or tags to be complaints. If you wish to file a complaint to report a contravention of the Official Languages Act, do not use social media to do so, but rather use our official channels. Information on how to file a complaint is available on our website.

If you have a complaint or comment about the content or management of our social media accounts, please feel free to contact us.

9. Comments etiquette

The Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages does not tolerate offensive, disrespectful or abusive comments about an individual or organization. Here are some examples of unacceptable content:

  • Racist, sexist or offensive language ;
  • Hate speech
  • Sexually explicit language
  • Personal attacks and defamatory statements
  • Breaking copyright rules (including copying and pasting content without crediting the source and/or author)
  • Violating someone’s privacy (e.g. by providing personal information such as telephone numbers or email addresses)
  • Threats or harassment
  • Spam
  • Commercial promotional content
  • Anything illegal

Sometimes we may have to remove a comment if the content is found to be unacceptable.

Any individual who does not follow these rules may also be excluded temporarily or permanently from the dialogue spaces of the Office of the Commissioner’s accounts. Users may also be reported to Meta, YouTube, X or LinkedIn if they do not adhere to the terms of use of these service providers.

10. Official languages

Because of its mandate, the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages is especially concerned with ensuring compliance with the Official Languages Act. Information is provided in both English and French, and is of equal quality in both official languages.

Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X and LinkedIn are available in both of Canada’s official languages. The interface language depends on the preferences you have selected for your account. You can change the interface language at any time by changing the preferences.

We post all of our messages in both official languages. We encourage you to take part in the conversation in the official language of your choice by selecting the appropriate accounts.

We reply to comments and questions in the official language in which they were sent. If we think a question or comment requires a general, public reply, we post the response on both our English and French accounts for the benefit of all users. As a result, we may sometimes summarize and translate the comment or question in order to provide context for our response. In these cases, we may also sometimes mention the name of the user who posted the comment.

Please note that our posts may refer to information from external sources that are not subject to the Official Languages Act. Links to these resources are provided for your convenience and are available only in the language used on the external site. When a web page is unilingual, we make every effort to provide an equivalent link or content in the other official language.

We reach out to members of official language minority communities, to ensure that we represent them effectively in our examples  promoting official languages. In particular, we make sure to choose examples involving English-speaking Quebecers and not just Francophones in the rest of Canada.

11. Accessibility

As third-party service providers, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X and LinkedIn are not bound by the Government of Canada's Web accessibility policies.

As far as possible, posts on our social media accounts include links to accessible web content. Please note that the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages’ publications that we refer to in our social media posts are available on our website, which is fully compliant with the Government of Canada’s accessibility rules.

12. Copyright

When you post a comment or question on one of our accounts, you give the Office of the Commissioner the right to adapt, summarize, translate and reproduce it on other social media accounts. You also give us the right to mention on these other accounts the Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X or LinkedIn username you used to post the original comment or question. If you wish to remain anonymous, please send us your questions or comments in a private message.

When you post comments on one of the Office of the Commissioner’s social media accounts, you must also comply with the provisions of the Copyright Act. For example, when you quote another person or organization, you must identify the source and author.

The Office of the Commissioner takes no responsibility for copyright infringement committed by users on its social media accounts.

13. Protection of privacy

Facebook, Instagram, YouTube X and LinkedIn are not Government of Canada websites; they are sites of third-party providers. We suggest that you read the confidentiality policies of Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X and LinkedIn as they apply to your use of our accounts.

Information shared with the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages through social media is subject to the provisions of the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act. This means that the information you share on the Office of the Commissioner’s social media accounts can be captured, stored, consulted and disclosed in response to a request under either of these acts.

To protect your personal information, and that of others, we recommend that you not include information such as telephone numbers or email addresses in your comments and messages.

The Office of the Commissioner does not collect or keep personal information on users of its accounts, unless you choose to send us a message or post a comment in which you voluntarily provide personal information. Any personal information you provide will be forwarded to the Office of the Commissioner employee who will respond to you. Replies to your messages will be kept for a minimum period of two years.

Any personal information posted on the Office of the Commissioner’s Facebook pages or Instagram pages or YouTube channel and any information included in X posts will become public given the nature of these sites. If you want us to remove personal information that you have included on one of our pages, please contact us.

The Office of the Commissioner may adapt, summarize, translate and reproduce your comments or questions on other social media accounts. We may also mention on these other accounts the Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X or LinkedIn username you used to post the original comment or question. If you sent a private message on social media, your username will not be disclosed if the Office of the Commissioner decides to share the comments.

14. The Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages’ staff on social media

Some employees of the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages’ have accounts on various social media platforms. Despite their professional affiliation with the Office of the Commissioner, their posts do not represent the Office of the Commissioner’s official position. These posts should be seen as the personal messages of individual citizens. The Office of the Commissioner takes no responsibility for the content of its employees’ personal social media accounts.

15. Media interview requests

Journalists are asked to please send their questions to the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages’ Media Relations team rather than posting them on our social media accounts.