FFP Guides

AHPRA advertising

AHPRA social media rules: comments, shares and tags

Ahpra's social media guidance confirms that advertising in social media using a testimonial breaches the National Law the same as a website does. A patient commenting on your clinic's own post is different from a patient posting on their own page: your page is something you control, so a clinical comment sitting under your post is part of the advertising you are responsible for.

Last checked 25 Sep 2026 against the sources listed at the end of this page.

"Advertising in social media that uses a testimonial is also a breach of the National Law." (Ahpra, Social media: How to meet your obligations under the National Law). Section 133(1)(c) of the National Law, which this guidance applies to social media, bans advertising that "uses testimonials or purported testimonials about the service or business."

Source

Allowed

  • A patient posting a clinical review or comment on their own personal profile, entirely outside your control, including if it mentions your clinic by name.
  • A patient tagging your clinic's page in their own post. Ahpra's guidance does not treat being tagged as republishing content, since a tag does not put the post on your page or under your control.
  • A short, generic reply to a comment that thanks the person without repeating, confirming or adding to any clinical detail they mentioned.
  • Turning off or restricting public comments on posts where you cannot realistically moderate them in time, as a way of keeping clinical content off a page you control.
  • Removing your own name or tag from a patient's post if they tag you in something clinical, where the platform allows it, so the content is not attributed to your business page.

Not allowed

  • Leaving a comment such as "my back pain is finally gone" visible under your clinic's own Facebook or Instagram post once you have seen it. The comment sits on a page you administer, which the guidelines treat as advertising you control.
  • Replying to a clinical comment in a way that confirms or promotes the result, for example "so glad the dry needling worked so well for your shoulder," which restates the clinical claim in your own reply.
  • Sharing, reposting or regramming a patient's own post about their treatment or outcome to your clinic's page or story. Once you repost it, the content is under your control and is your advertising.
  • Pinning a clinical comment or review to the top of your page, or featuring it in a Highlights reel, which both give it more prominence than an untouched comment.
  • Screenshotting a patient's DM or text message thanking the clinic for a result and posting it, whether or not the patient's name is visible, since the clinical statement is what matters, not the format it arrived in.

What a compliant clinic website does

A clinic's Instagram and Facebook pages are set to require comment approval on new posts, or reviewed daily by a staff member. Clinical comments are hidden using the platform's comment moderation tools rather than left up, generic replies are used for anything that cannot be quickly assessed, and no patient's own post is ever reshared, regrammed or screenshotted to the clinic's page or stories.

Penalty: Advertising in breach of section 133 is a criminal offence, with a maximum penalty of $60,000 per offence for an individual and $120,000 per offence for a body corporate, and Ahpra's social media guidance states the National Law applies to a practitioner's social media use the same as any other advertising channel.

This is general information, not legal advice. Check the current guideline before you publish.

Your own page is not the same as a platform you do not control

Ahpra draws a line between reviews left on a platform a clinic does not control, such as Google Maps, and content on a page the clinic itself administers, such as its own Facebook or Instagram business page. A patient's clinical comment sitting on Google is not something Ahpra expects a practice to police. The same comment sitting under a post on the clinic's own page is different: the clinic owns the page, chooses what stays up, and has moderation tools available. Ahpra's social media guidance is explicit that the National Law's advertising rules, including the testimonial ban, apply to social media the same way they apply to a website, so a page you administer carries the same obligation a homepage does.

Replies can turn a borderline comment into a clear breach

A comment that only implies an outcome, without much clinical detail, sits in a grey area. A reply from the clinic that fills in the missing detail does not. Writing back to confirm the treatment, name the condition, or celebrate the result turns an ambiguous comment into an unambiguous testimonial that the clinic itself contributed to, published under the clinic's own name in the reply. The safer pattern is a short, generic thank you that adds nothing clinical, whatever the comment said.

Shares, regrams and tags are not all treated the same

Being tagged in someone else's post is passive: the content lives on their page, not yours, and a tag alone does not move it under your control. Sharing, reposting or regramming that same post to your own page or story is active: you have chosen to put someone else's clinical content on a page you run, which functions the same as writing it yourself. The distinction matters because clinics that would never write a testimonial themselves sometimes repost a glowing patient story without applying the same test, because it feels like sharing rather than advertising. Under the National Law it is advertising either way.

Sources

  1. Advertising in social media that uses a testimonial is also a breach of the National Law, and the National Law and Ahpra's advertising guidelines apply to a registered practitioner's use of social media. Ahpra, checked 25 Sep 2026.
  2. Section 133(1)(c) of the National Law prohibits advertising a regulated health service in a way that uses testimonials or purported testimonials about the service or business. Ahpra and the National Boards, checked 25 Sep 2026.
  3. Ahpra's social media guidance asks practitioners to take care when sharing information, including comments or photos, so they do not inadvertently disclose patient information. Ahpra, checked 25 Sep 2026.
  4. A testimonial is a recommendation or positive statement about the clinical aspects of a regulated health service used in advertising. Ahpra, checked 25 Sep 2026.
  5. The maximum penalty for an advertising offence under the National Law is $60,000 per offence for an individual and $120,000 per offence for a body corporate. Ahpra and the National Boards, checked 25 Sep 2026.