Twitter Terms of Use

We are committed to providing Canadians with timely information about our policies, programs, services and initiatives through our two official Twitter accounts:

This Terms of Use explains what people can expect from us on Twitter. Currently we use English and French accounts to share information on food safety and animal health. These terms are reviewed periodically and may be amended at any time.

Note: by using Twitter you are bound by the Twitter’s Terms of Service and related policies and rules which govern your access and use of Twitter. You are strongly encouraged to familiarize yourself with Twitter's Terms of Service.

Availability and Content

Our Twitter accounts are primarily used as a secondary channel for posting information that is available on our website. The following outlines our hours of operations and the topics we tweet about from each of our accounts.

@CFIA_Food

  • we aim to share messages Monday to Friday, from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time
  • we provide automated food recall alerts generated by RSS feeds on a year-round, 24-hour basis
  • followers can expect tweets related to food safety, such as, but not limited to:
    • food recalls and allergy alerts;
    • food safety information and tips;
    • results from food sampling, inspection and testing programs; and
    • news releases on food safety regulations, policies, programs and initiatives.

@CFIA_Animals

  • we aim to share messages Monday to Friday, from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time
  • followers can expect tweets related to animal health, such as, but not limited to:
    • animal health and diseases;
    • biosecurity tips; and
    • news releases on animal health regulations, policies, programs and initiatives.

Note: We are not responsible nor accountable should users not be able to access our information in the event that Twitter becomes unavailable.

Links

We provide links to related content on our website when possible.

We sometimes provide links to non-Government of Canada websites, such as in a retweet, solely for the convenience of our followers. We are not responsible for the accuracy, currency, or reliability of the content of other websites, nor do we endorse the websites or their content.

Retweets

We may occasionally retweet (RT) information posted by other accounts that we think is valuable to our followers.

Retweeting should not be interpreted as an endorsement of the originator or of any organization, product or service the tweet refers to, nor should it be taken as an indication of a shift in the Agency's current official position.

Users may retweet the CFIA’s tweets, provided that the CFIA’s content is not changed.

Following and Followers

We follow other government departments and agencies, international bodies, as well as organizations that relate to the CFIA's mission. Our decision to follow a particular Twitter account does not imply endorsement of the account holder or its content.

We will not follow individual users or commercial or political organizations.

The appearance of a Twitter user as a follower of our account does not imply endorsement by the CFIA.

We will block followers who violate our Terms of Use and where their content is deemed to fall into any of the following categories:

  • Unlawful, illegal, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libellous, invasive of another’s privacy, hateful, derogatory, discriminatory or that may incite or instruct anyone to undertake such activities;
  • Content you do not have a right to make available under any law or under any contractual or fiduciary relationships;
  • Infringes intellectual property rights or the proprietary rights of others;
  • Is confidential, sensitive or otherwise inappropriate to be placed on CFIAs page or in a public forum generally.

In addition, we reserve the discretionary right to monitor the content posted on Twitter and may, without notice or liability to followers or any other person, take steps to inform Twitter if a follower does not abide by Twitter’s Terms of Service and Twitter Rules.

Direct Messages and @replies

Currently we do not respond to questions or comments via Twitter. People are encouraged to check our website for more information on our policies, programs and services, and contact us.

CFIA Employees using Twitter

CFIA employees may use Twitter in their personal capacity under their own names or pseudonyms. Despite their professional affiliation with the CFIA, their tweets do not represent the official or unofficial position of the CFIA. Such tweets should be considered as those of private citizens.

Legislation and Policy

Accessibility

Twitter is a third-party service provider and is not bound by the Government of Canada Standard on Web Accessibility. However, the CFIA is committed to following the web accessibility best practices for Twitter. This includes providing links to related and equivalent content on our website when possible.

Users with accessibility issues are encouraged to use an accessible version of Twitter.

Official Languages

We respect the Official Languages Act and are committed to ensuring that information is available in English and French. At all times, our tweets will be made available in both official languages.

Retweets however, will only be available in the language of the originator’s tweet. Users should be aware that some links found in a retweet them to sites or other entities that are not subject to the Official Languages Act and that those sources are only available in the language in which they are written.

Privacy

Our Twitter accounts represent CFIA’s presence on Twitter, a third-party service provider; therefore, users are also encouraged to read Twitter's Privacy Policy.

CFIA is subject to the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act. Information shared with us on Twitter is also subject to the provision of these Acts, which means your tweets may be copied, stored, accessed or disclosed in response to a request under either of these Acts.

CFIA is not responsible for personal information tweeted by other users. To protect your own privacy and the privacy of others, users should not share personal information such as social insurance number, occupation, home address, telephone numbers, photographs containing images of identifiable individuals, and any other information considered personal as defined in section 3 of the Privacy Act.

Contact Information

For additional information about our policies, programs, services and initiatives, complete our online comments and feedback form.

For media enquiries, reporters are asked to refrain from submitting questions on Twitter and instead are encouraged to: