Digital Participation Policy

Introduction

In managing its pages on social network websites, ICP adheres to the principles and general guidelines for the Use of Social Media Tools in Governmental Entities of the United Arab Emirates.
ICP launched its social network pages on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in 2010 as a platform to provide its customers and followers with its latest updates, and it started providing the service of interaction with customers through those channels on May 1, 2012.
This document provides a guide on how to use social media and digital participation tools in a responsible, safe and effective manner, with the aim of communicating with customers and users of social media networks and cooperating with them in designing and implementing government programs and services, in the context of the widespread use of social media tools at various levels.
This document aims to clarify the relationship and the communication policy in order to enhance the mutual benefit of these tools, as well as to preserve the authority’s reputation intact, and to answer the followers’ inquiries, in a professional and immediate manner, according to mechanisms and policies for using social media tools laid out in this document.

The Competent Entity

• The Government Communication Department at ICP undertakes the task of managing and following up on the Authority’s social media tools. It is also responsible for explaining this document to others, monitoring the extent of compliance with its directives and dealing with all topics related to the authority through social media tools.
• The Government Communication Department undertakes the development of a clear communication methodology with the relevant departments of the authority and which are responsible for the services it provides to customers.
• The Government Communication Department is responsible for providing the indicators and periodic reports necessary to measure the performance of the authority’s social pages, with the aim of following up the performance and identifying the extent of the impact of these pages on managing the Authority’s reputation and improving its image among customers and followers.

Content Management

The Government Communication Department publishes and manages the contents of the Authority’s pages on social media websites as follows:

• Publishing the authority’s news, events and services in a simple and direct manner.
• The process of news publishing and direct interaction with customers and followers takes place between 9:00am and 5:00pm, all days of the week, except for Friday and Saturday.
• Interacting with followers or publishing press news beyond official working hours, as required.
• The Authority, through its pages, asks a number of questions to its customers regarding the services it provides, in addition to a periodic opinion poll.
• The Authority is responsible for responding to customers’ inquiries raised through social media websites
•  The Authority offers a set of competitions that focus on awareness raising about the role of identity or general topics related to cultural information in a way that enhances the authority’s strategic values of spreading knowledge.
• The authority constantly seeks to identify the needs of customers and develops its services according to the information collected through these channels.
• The authority attaches importance to analysing and evaluating the response of its customers and followers through social media outlets.

Accounts Management

The content that the authority publishes through its social media websites represents the authority’s official view.

Accordingly, the criteria for managing social media accounts are as follows:

• Choosing a team specialized in communicating with customers to play the role of interacting with followers and answering their inquiries.
•  A person in charge manages the official accounts and approves directed content prior to publication.
• The authority welcomes the comments of its followers and their participation through its pages on social media websites.
•  The Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship has the right to delete any material that may constitute a source of threat to national or individual security, or what constitutes a violation of the privacy of others, or offending them, or any comments that may contain infringements of a personal nature, or include inappropriate language.
• Those in charge of the Authority’s pages have the right to delete or exclude participants who do not comply with these mechanisms.
• The team responsible for social media channels deals with personal information and registration application numbers of the customers in strict confidence.
•  The followers are prohibited from publishing their data on the authority’s public page, and they are directed to use private communication channels, and whoever does not comply with these instructions is responsible for publishing his personal data.
• The Authority deals with comments and questions received in all languages.

Supervision Policy

1. The authority welcomes you and your comments and opinions, and your inputs will be appreciated by us and we will take them into account as one of the important references in improving and developing our services.
2.  The authority also welcomes any free comments and inputs on the authority’s social media accounts, while retaining its right to prevent the appearance of any content that may:

•  Constitute a threat to security
•  Contain inappropriate language
• Violate the privacy of others or abuse them
•  Violate laws or public order and morals
•  Indecent, obscene or defamatory
•  Contain unsolicited messages or promote a business
•  Be interpreted as prejudiced or harmful to any segment of society on the basis of race, colour, nationality, religion, status, etc.
• Include group or political discussions
•  Contain an infringement of intellectual property rights

The authority confirms that failure to comply with this policy may lead to the withholding of participation, while preserving the authority’s right to take appropriate legal actions.

Encouraging digital participation

The Authority encourages digital participation through:

• Digital Participation Charter Policy
• Electronic information that provides customers with general information without the need for them to request it
• Digital consultancy and advice that engages customers in deliberations about public services and service delivery
• Making decisions electronically, which allows the involvement of customers through joint design of services, joint production of service components and methods of providing them, based on information, notes and suggestions collected through digital consultations and advice.
• To view the digital consultations, please click here
• To view the national participation portal “UAE Participate”, Click here

Tools that the authority uses effectively to encourage digital participation

• Discussion Forums Platform
•  Social Media Platform
• Open Data Platform
• Gamification
• Chatbot
• Customer Council Platform
• Brainstorming sessions
•  User Experience Lab
•  Blogs
•  Polls platform
•  Questionnaire platform
•  Digital Consultation Platform
• Feedback and suggestions
•  Complaints
• Frequently Asked Questions

Average time for handling customer inquiries

• Customers get consistently fast and accurate answers to more than 80% of inquiries through the supporting digital channels
• E-mail: within one day
• Start chatting: within 30 seconds
• Answer the inquiry via instant chat: within 5 minutes
• Social media outlets: within two hours

Availability of digital channels

99.9% subject to business continuity plan

The Authority’s commitment towards the public

• We will always address you and treat you with respect and care.
• We will communicate with you through a cooperative team that has knowledge, understands your needs, and can answer your inquiries.
• We will respond to your inquiries in a timely manner and without delay.
• We will provide you with accurate information and proper service procedures.
•  We will be available to communicate with you at the times and through the channels and websites that suit you the best.
• We will welcome your opinions and suggestions to participate with you in developing our services.

Digital Participation of People of Determination

The authority made sure that people of determination can easily access information published in digital channels by implementing accessibility standards (WCAG 2.0 AAA).

• Providing the virtual assistant in sign language, that is, when the user points with the cursor on a specific text, the cartoon character begins translating it into sign language.
•  The ability to increase the font size
•  Text-to-speech feature
•  Provide the feature of converting speech into written text
•  Listen to this page
• Change colors
•  Night Reading

Behavior of the team responsible for social media pages

The team responsible for the authority’s social media pages, when managing social media channels, is committed to the following:

• Principles of Professional Conduct and Ethics in the Public Offices of Federal Authorities” issued in July 2010
•  The UAE Human Resources Law (Federal Decree Law No. 11 of 2008).
• Act in a manner that preserves the reputation of the government in general and the authority in particular.
• The team responsible for the Authority’s pages shall not publish its official contact information for correspondence purposes, and this information includes e-mail, phone number, mailbox, etc. in its personal profiles on social networking sites.
• The team charged with managing and following up on the authority’s social media pages is responsible for ensuring that its personal behavior on social media sites does not harm the authority’s reputation.
• The team responsible for the authority’s pages relies on a unified mailing address or a special communication channel that represents the authority when requesting information or data for the customer who seeks direct communication with the authority’s employees.
• The Authority’s customer service team assumes part of the responsibility of responding to customer complaints that need support in a different way, in cases where direct contact with the customer is required.
•  Communication with customers and followers through social media channels is interactive, not authoritarian. It is also directed and not random or general, as is the case when communicating using traditional means of publication, which allows the authority to transmit the correct message to followers quickly and directly..

Disclaimer

It should be noted that all posts and discussions submitted by the public are considered personal and represent the point of view of its author, and the Authority does not bear any legal responsibility resulting from the abuse of digital participation tools by users.