Twitter terms of use

The ACCC Twitter account (@ACCCgovau) is managed by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

We use the account to tweet consumer and business news, tips, and other related information.

Hours

The account is monitored Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm AEST, excluding public holidays.

Following policy

We will not automatically follow you back if you follow us on Twitter.

We follow other Twitter accounts relevant to our work at our discretion. Being followed by the ACCC does not imply endorsement of any kind.

Replies and direct messages

We welcome feedback and comments from Twitter users. We will endeavour to respond to your question within 24 hours (except weekends and public holidays).

Some enquiries may require further investigation before we get back to you with a definitive answer. We will let you know if this is the case.

Some enquiries will need to be directed to our Infocentre, for example, questions about an individual consumer issue.

Users are reminded to be aware that Twitter is a public space on the internet and all interactions are publicly viewable and searchable over time.

Disclaimer

Material tweeted to the ACCC are submitted by the users of those Twitter accounts. The ACCC accepts no responsibility for the accuracy, currency, completeness, relevance and suitability for any purpose of any information tweeted to the ACCC Twitter account.

Information posted on the ACCC Twitter account is not official policy and will not grant any rights, privileges, or standing on any matter.

For further information about the ACCC, please contact us.

Specific brands or businesses

When contacting us via Twitter, please refrain from referring to specific brand names of products or services, or the business names associated with them. We are unable to reply publicly to any comments referring to brands or businesses.

Privacy

The ACCC may record any information tweeted to our Twitter account and use that information for the purpose of administering the Twitter account and considering and/or addressing any comments made. Users’ email addresses will only be used for the purpose for which they are provided. We will not make any further attempts to identify individuals except where authorised or required by law.

To protect your privacy, and the privacy of others, please do not include personally identifiable information such as phone numbers, email addresses, or other personal information in the body of your tweet to us.

Blocking users

A blocked user will not be able to add our Twitter account to their lists, have their @replies or mentions show in our mentions tab, follow us, or see our profile picture on their profile page or in their timeline. We reserve the right to block or unfollow users from our Twitter account, if they:

  • use personally identifying information of any individual, including business owners
  • are abusive, harassing, stalking, threatening or attack others
  • are defamatory, offensive, obscene, vulgar or depict violence
  • use hateful language, target race/ethnicity, religion, gender, nationality or political beliefs
  • are fraudulent, deceptive, misleading or unlawful
  • tweet us content that breaks the law or encourages others to do so. This includes breaching privacy, condoning illegal activity and contempt of court
  • identify matters that are currently the subject of legal proceedings or would break a court’s non-publication order
  • impersonate or falsely claim to represent a person or an organisation
  • violate any intellectual property rights
  • are considered to be spamming
  • contain commercial solicitation or solicitation of donations.

The ACCC reserves the right to vary the ACCC Twitter Terms of Use.