GTHL Social Media Community Code
The Greater Toronto Hockey League recognizes the importance of using social media to directly communicate and engage with the League’s participants and those associated. Social media allows us to share stories, hear your stories, stay connected, strengthen our community, and continue conversations.
The GTHL also recognizes the responsibilities that come with using social media. It is important to us that our participants can engage with the League and each other in a respectful, positive, and safe environment.
We understand that social media can sometimes be an unpleasant place, where some people choose to engage in negative dialogue, bully, and a small minority spread hate.
The GTHL has a zero-tolerance policy on racism, sexism, homophobia, bullying, abuse, hate speech, or discrimination of any kind on social media. All participants are encouraged to review the GTHL Social Media Policy for more information.
The GTHL Social Media Community Code strives to set clear guidance on what is acceptable when engaging with the League, our Member Clubs, participants, and fellow hockey fans. It also outlines what will not be tolerated. This is a collective effort, and we are calling on our community to help support us in our mission to create a welcoming, safe, and inclusive online environment for all.
Our official social media channels include, but are not limited to:
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
TikTok
Threads
YouTube
LinkedIn
Guidance for participants
The GTHL is committed to creating a safe online environment across our social media channels and we ask that our participants support our mission by reflecting our values and beliefs when engaging with each other and the League online. For more information, all participants are encouraged to review the GTHL Social Media Policy.
Our commitment to you
The GTHL is committed to continuing to work to prevent hateful, abusive, and discriminatory content appearing on our platforms. We will take the necessary action to protect our players, coaches, bench staff, officials, and those associated.
The GTHL strives to continuously and actively monitor comments posted on our social media channels and comments, including those received via direct message. We will remove posts that breach the GTHL Social Media Policy and the GTHL’s Community Code Guidelines. Users that violate our policy and community code may also be blocked.
While the GTHL takes a proactive approach to dealing with posts, comments, and messages that violate our policy and community code, due to the sheer volume of activity on social media in relation to the GTHL, there may be instances where you spot them before we do.
The GTHL will not tolerate any form of bullying, abuse, or discrimination, including but not limited to:
- Racism
- Sexism
- Homophobia
- Hateful, abusive, and offensive language
- Sexual harassment
- Incitement to violence
Your commitment to us
Block users and report incidents to social media platforms
It is important to remember that you can block any user that is causing you harm or distress. If you encounter any abusive, hateful, or discriminatory comments online, the GTHL strongly advises that your immediate response is to report this directly to the respective social media platform where you witnessed the incident. Each platform has its own reporting procedure, and we encourage following their processes. You can find out more about reporting directly via the platforms here:
Report incidents to the GTHL
If you have witnessed something that you believe violates the GTHL Social Media Policy and/or these Community Code guidelines that is directly connected to the League and/or our participants, you can report this to us at communitycode@gthlcanada.com.
Participants should be aware that the social media universe is much bigger than the GTHL. For the League to investigate and act on incident reports, the incident must have had a direct connection to the League and/or its Members. It cannot, and will not, act on reports that have only a tangential connection.
To support your report, please provide the following:
- A screenshot of the content that you are reporting
- The date and time of posting
- The username of the perpetrator
- A link to the original GTHL post and/or participant post where the post and/or comment was seen
The GTHL will investigate these reports on an individual basis before deciding on an appropriate course of action, if applicable. Examples of these actions can include, but are not limited to:
- Removing posts/comments/messages from GTHL platforms
- Blocking perpetrators from the League’s social media channels
- Reporting the account/user/comment to the relevant social media platform
The decision on whether to take action will remain at the GTHL’s discretion. Any decision not to act does not constitute an endorsement by the League of the content under complaint.
All reports will remain confidential and anonymous, and each report will be investigated on an individual basis. The GTHL will acknowledge your report and we will reach out if we require any further information. Every report is important to us, and we will investigate each one. In the world of social media, please note that it will not always be possible to provide an outcome, however, this does not mean that we have not investigated the report nor acted.
While the GTHL would discourage engaging with any offensive or abusive posts, we would suggest keeping a note of any comments or messages of this nature. You can keep a record of online abuse by taking a screenshot of the post/comment/message, be sure to include the author’s username and the time and date of posting. You can do this on your smartphone, tablet, laptop, or computer. Keeping a record would be helpful should you decide to report this later.
Where necessary, the GTHL will assist the authorities/police should they wish to act on any reports made by ourselves and/or our online community in relation to any behaviour that has occurred on the League’s social media platforms.
Report crimes to the Police
If you feel that you have been the victim of or have witnessed a crime on social media, you should report this directly to the police.