As the nonprofit association of city and county governments and the metropolitan planning organization for the bistate Kansas City region, we, the Mid-America Regional Council ("MARC") use various social media channels and platforms (the "sites") to inform and engage with the public about specific projects and our work and mission.
Your use of any of MARC’s social media sites is subject to these terms of use plus any terms and conditions from the social media channels or platforms themselves. Our goal in using the sites is to provide useful content and information about and foster an open and respectful dialogue relating to the specific issues and topics covered in our posts and tweets.
Please be aware that MARC sites are limited public forums and may be actively moderated by MARC staff. At MARC, we respect the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the constitutional right to freedom of speech. MARC encourages honest, civil, and productive discussions and looks forward to engaging with users on the sites. We ask that users avoid profanity, personal attacks, bullying, or use of incorrect information.
Please note that we currently use automated content moderation/filtering options available on various social media platforms to manage objectionable content, such as hiding profanity.
MARC expects user-generated posts or comments to be on-topic and consistent with the purposes of the site. Examples of inappropriate or off-topic messages which may be deleted or hidden include content that:
- Violates the terms of use of the applicable social media platform (e.g. Facebook or Instagram);
- Advocates violence or illegal activity;
- Contains obscenity, which is defined as sexually explicit and/or pornographic content that is patently offensive, appeals to prurient interest, and lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value;
- Promotes or advocates discrimination based on race, age, religion, gender, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any other legally protected class;
- Contains links to malware and/or malicious content that affects the normal function of a computer system, server, or browser;
- Is a duplicate of content posted within a short period of time;
- Contains actual defamation against a person, group or entity, either as determined by a court or comments that are patently defamatory by easily discovered facts;
- Contains images or other content that violate the intellectual property or copyright rights of someone else, if the owner of that property notifies us that the property was posted in a comment on any of the Sites;
- Contains a hyperlink to any website other than those controlled by MARC;
- Contains commercial messages, including advertisements, endorsements, solicitations and spam;
- Promotes or endorses political campaigns, candidates for election to a political office, or ballot measures;
- Contains information that may compromise the safety or security of the public, public systems, MARC employees, or public officials;
- Contains false, vicious or malicious statements concerning any MARC employee; or
- Discloses confidential or proprietary information or personally identifiable information of any individual, such as an address, phone number, social security number or other sensitive information.
Repeated or egregious violations of these terms of use may result in an individual being blocked or restricted from interactions with MARC's sites. Commenting on any site, string or post may be disabled or turned off at our discretion, including when there are excessive comments in violation of the terms of use.
Please keep in mind that we do not create, control, represent or endorse any opinions or statements expressed by other users within our social media channels, including those that follow/like MARC and those followed/liked by MARC and that any content posted by anyone other than MARC is the responsibility of the submitter and not MARC. Links that take you out of our social media channels, websites, and digital assets are not under the control of MARC, and we are not responsible for the terms and conditions, privacy policy, or content of any such site or any further links from such site. We are providing these links to you only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement of the linked site by MARC.
You should understand that the content you submit to any MARC site is public and will not place MARC under any obligation to you. This means MARC is free to disclose and use the ideas contained in content on a non-confidential basis to anyone without any liability to you. You agree that by posting content on any MARC site, you grant MARC a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display, and distribute such content in any and all media or distribution methods now known or later developed. Further, by submitting content you represent and warrant to MARC that you are the sole owner of the content and that our use of the content will not violate the rights of any third party, including, but not limited to copyright rights; and that you will defend and hold MARC harmless from any and all claims arising therefrom. By submitting content, you waive any right to inspect or approve of such uses and agree to hold harmless MARC and all others identified above from any and all claims you, your heirs, executors or assigns may at any time have against MARC on account of the granting of the license or arising out of MARC's use of the content.
We reserve all rights relating to our social media channels, including but not limited to: (i) adding, removing, or modifying any content, (ii) blocking disruptive users; and (iii) discontinuing any of our social media channels at any time.
