About the PPS social media policy
This is the official social media policy of the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland. The PPSNI social media channels on X (formerly Twitter), Vimeo, Instagram and Youtube are designed to provide information about the work of the PPS. The channels are managed by the PPS Communications Unit during office hours, Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm. We cannot respond to all mentions or Direct Messages.
If you follow our social media channels, you can expect to see tweets and videos covering the following areas:
- Information about the work of the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland
- Press releases and statements from the PPS
- Statistical bulletins and other key corporate information about the PPS
- Invitations to input to consultations
- New content published on our website
It is important to note that we cannot answer queries about individual cases via our social media channels.
If you would like to make a complaint about the PPS, please visit the complaints section of our website.
For media enquiries, please contact the PPS Press Office by email.
By using our channels you agree to our 'house rules' (see below).
Please do not try to report crime using our social media channels. In an emergency, call 999. In a non-emergency where you need assistance or advice, call 101.
Use of social media
1. If you follow us, we do not automatically follow back.
2. We will use hashtags and mention other social media accounts where appropriate.
3. Being followed, using hashtags or mentioning other accounts does not imply endorsement of any kind.
4. We will share where we think it is useful or interesting but, again, this is not an endorsement.
5. We update and monitor our social media accounts during normal office hours, Monday to Friday.
6. Social media platforms such as X or Instagram may occasionally be unavailable and we accept no responsibility for our lack of service due to any downtime.
Views and feedback
7. We welcome feedback, ideas and engagement and will try to join the conversation where possible, and where it is right to do so.
8. Where we can, we will point to additional information already in the public domain.
9. We are not able to reply individually to all messages we receive on our social media accounts.
10. Emerging themes or helpful suggestions are routinely passed on to policy colleagues in the department.
11. When you ‘share’, 'like', 'repost' or 'comment' on one of our social media posts, you should be aware that this will be publicly available.
12. We may use your contact information/ usernames to respond to messages/ comments you send to us.
13. If you post publicly on social media, we may share/ retweet your post with our followers.
14. Usernames of our followers are publicly available
15. We may also receive information about you from third parties such as other social media users if they mention you or share a photo of you.
16. We may use analytics or third parties to analyse our social media channels for trends, insights and engagement.
17. You may unfollow us at any stage.
House rules
We expect our users to offer us the same level of courtesy that we offer them, so we have a short set of 'house rules':
18. all users must comply with the social media platform's terms of use as well as these terms of use
19. you are wholly responsible for any content you post, including content that you choose to share
20. we will remove, in whole or in part, or ignore posts that we feel are inappropriate
21. we will report and remove any social media profiles that are set up using the Public Prosecution Service's name or imagery without permission
22. we will remove, block, ban and/ or report users to the associated social media platform who direct messages at us which we believe:
- violate the law
- discuss ongoing legal proceedings
- bully, harass or intimidate any individual or organisation
- are unlawful, libellous, defamatory, abusive, threatening, harmful, obscene, profane, sexually oriented or racially offensive
- are deceptive or misleading
- infringe or violate someone else's rights
- violate any intellectual property rights
- are spam (persistent negative and/ or abusive tweeting in which the aim is to provoke a response)
- advertise products or services
- are irrelevant or off-topic
- are disruptive
- are repetitive
23. We will also remove, block, report or ban any user who:
- encourages others to post such messages
- uses offensive images as their profile picture
- has an offensive user name
Responding
24. We'll do our best to respond to your enquiries as soon as possible, but only during office hours, Monday – Friday 9am-5pm
25. We'll try to help you, or direct you to people and/ or departments who can, wherever possible.
26. We do not respond to messages of a commercial nature.
27. We reserve the right to modify or change these conditions at any time.
The usual way of contacting the Public Prosecution Service for official correspondence can be found on the PPS website at /contact-us