Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) Social Media Moderation Policy
August 2023
Japanese
1. Administration
(1) Contributor
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF)
(2) Contents of posts
MAFF's measures and operations, and the related information
2. Management of comments
(1) Responding to comments
MAFF's social media accounts are exclusively for the purpose of disseminating information, and MAFF shall not respond to comments in principle. Inquiries and opinions are accepted on an ongoing basis through the contact form on MAFF’s website, so parties with questions and comments should use that channel.
(2) Deletion of comments
In the operation of MAFF's social media accounts, please be advised that comments that are unrelated to the post and/or comments that are deemd to fall under any of the following categories may be fully or partially hidden, deleted, or rejected without prior notification to the contributor.
- Contents that violate, or could potentially violate, laws and regulations
- Contents that go against public order and morals
- Contents that incite criminal behavior
- Contents that are slanderous or defamatory to specific individuals, corporations, organizations, etc., or which damage their reputation or credibility
- Contents that violate privacy, such as by disclosing or leaking personal information without the individual’s consent
- Contents that infringe on third-party patents, design rights, copyrights, trademarks, portrait rights, etc.
- Contents that serve the objectives of political activities, election activities, religious activities, and/or commercial activities, or which serve similar purposes
- Contents that are fraudulent or significantly different from the facts
- Contents that discriminate, or promote discrimination, based on human rights, ideology, creed, etc.
- Comments with identical or similar contents that are repeatedly posted by the same user
- Contents to impersonate other users, third parties, etc.
- Contents that include malicious computer programs, etc.
- Contents that fully or partially modify the contents communicated by MAFF
- Contents that violate the terms of use of the applicable social media service
- Any other contents that MAFF deems to be inappropriate in the management of the respective social media accounts
(3) Blocking users
Comments from users who post comments corresponding to 2(2) above may be blocked. Users who disrupt the appropriate operation of MAFF's social media account may be blocked permanently.
3. Prohibition of use of URL shortener services
To maintain MAFF’s security standards, the use of URL shortener services is prohibited in principle except in cases where such use is unavoidable, for example, when the social media service has a function that automatically shortens the URL.
4. URL of MAFF’s social media accounts
Please refer to the following link.
List of MAFF'S social media accounts (in Japanese)
5. Changes to the Moderation Policy
This Moderation Policy is subject to changes without prior notice.
6. Intellectual property rights
The intellectual property rights of photographs, illustrations, audio, videos, articles, and other contents published on MAFF’s social media accounts belong to MAFF or the legitimate rights holder.
Functions such as “Like” (Facebook) and “Repost” (X, formerly Twitter), and including functions similar to these, may be used freely on posts published on MAFF’s social media accounts. Reproduction is permissible with clear attribution of the source of the contents.
However, this is not applicable in cases where there is a note indicating “unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited,” for example.
7. Disclaimer
While every measure is taken to ensure the accuracy of information published on MAFF’s social media accounts, MAFF bears no responsibility for any actions taken by users using information from these social media accounts.
Please be advised that MAFF accepts no responsibility for any problems that arise between users in connection with MAFF’s social media accounts or the damages incurred as a result thereof, as well as problems that arise between users and third parties in connection with MAFF’s social media accounts or the damages incurred as a result thereof.
The copyrights, etc. of comments and other posts belong to the users who published the posts in question. However, by publishing a post, the user grants MAFF the right to use the contents of the post non-exclusively and free of charge worldwide, and agrees not to exercise their copyrights, etc. against MAFF.
In addition to the above, MAFF bears no responsibility for any damages that arise in connection with its social media accounts.
