We want to make Understanding Animal Research’s social media channels a positive and informative experience for everyone who interacts with them. These guidelines outline what you can expect from UAR on social media, and what we expect of users who engage with us. We want our social media channels to be a space for insightful and respectful discussions, so please follow our house rules when posting and help us maintain a friendly space.

What you can expect from us

On our social media channels, you can find the latest news related to animal research, educational information on historical and current animal research, and information about the work of UAR. We value free debate and open discussion, and hope you will share and discuss information relevant to animal research. Positive and negative views, verifiable information and your own opinion about animal research are all welcome within these house rules.

We do our best to post content that contains peer reviewed and verified information, this includes content produced by UAR and content we share that is produced externally. We are dedicated to combatting misinformation and lies surrounding animal research and are happy to share our sources on request.

Please be mindful that people may share information or content about animal research that has not come from a verified source, and that posts shared on social media may have been altered or manipulated in some way. We will always do our best to check any comments, links, and other content posted on our channels and indicate whether we believe it to be an accurate representation of animal research in the UK or not.

Our core office hours are between 9am and 5pm (British time) Monday to Friday, excluding national holidays. During these hours, our social media is actively managed. Outside of these hours, our channels are not actively monitored. We aim to respond to all direct enquires as quickly as we can, but as we are a small team this can sometimes take several days. Unfortunately, we are only able to respond to enquiries in English.

We always welcome questions and comments via our social media channels, however as space is often limited, we would prefer for you to send longer queries via email to office@uar.org.uk.

What we expect from our social media followers and wider community

Be safe

Staying safe on social media is very important. Remember that you should not share personal information relating to yourself or other individuals such as email addresses, postal addresses or phone numbers on social media as these public forums that can be accessed by anyone. Posts or comments that include this sort of information will be removed.

We are not responsible for the privacy or security practices of social media platforms or users.

Be respectful

We have thousands of followers on our social media channels, all of whom have differing opinions and experiences of animal research. We ask that comments and discussions on our social media channels are respectful to other users, as well as our staff.

a. We will not tolerate insults, provocation, abuse, discrimination, harassment, obscene, violent, unlawful or threatening language or imagery directed at us, our members, our staff members, or other followers and users of our social media channels.

b. We will not allow spamming (including repeated links to other websites), product advertisements, defamatory comments, and fraudulent or misleading content.

c. We will not accept deliberately controversial comments or persistent inflammatory comments that have been posted to provoke a reaction.

Comments that include hateful, defamatory, abusive, threatening, harmful, obscene, discriminatory or harassing language will be reported. Users who do not follow our house rules may have their comments hidden or deleted in the first instance. Users who repeatedly disregard our house rules will be blocked.

If you believe that any of the comments on our social media channels violate these rules, please email us at office@uar.org.uk, send us a direct message or report the comment / user to the relevant social media platform.

Be original

Please ensure that you have the correct permissions to use any content that you share to our social media channels. That means only posting content that you have created yourself, you own, or have been given express permission to use in the given context.

UAR has the right to change or update these house rules at any time and we will clearly state the date that these rules were updated below. We hope that making our house rules clearly available will support a safer and more inclusive social media environment for all our users and followers.

October 2021