Social Media and Public Records

By: Graham I. Rabinowitsch

With the increase in use of social media by government agencies and public officials, questions about the public record status of social media posts, comments, tweets, etc. have risen and will likely continue to persist. Laws pertaining to public meetings and records are referred to as Sunshine Laws. Under sunshine laws, typically, government agencies must conduct all business at open, public meetings, officials may not discuss any business which may come before their body with other members of the body outside of such meetings, and all records pertaining to public business must be made available to the public. Social media, an interactive part of the lives of many Americans (especially the younger generations), can complicate matters.

For traditional public records (ex. paper documents, email, etc), a designated custodian of records maintains copies of the records for the official file. Facebook posts and comments and tweets and direct messages are not saved to the file servers of government agencies. Should the public official manually archive such data and transmit it to their agency’s designated custodian? It becomes an issue when public officials blend their personal and official social media presences. If it relates to public business or is an official page or feed, the information should be available to the public and maintained as a record just as traditional paper documents and emails are. The public has a right to know how their officials make decisions that affect their lives. Where is the line drawn? Should public officials have separate accounts for their private life and their official role, making sure they do not post anything that could be interpreted as a public record on their private accounts? In a world like today, can public officials afford to avoid social media entirely?

Further Reading

·       Best Practices for Social Media Usage in North Carolina http://www.records.ncdcr.gov/guides/best_practices_socialmedia_usage_20091217.pdf

·       Naples Daily News – School district officials Twittering cautiously to avoid violating open records laws http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2009/jun/25/school-district-officials-twittering-cautiously-av/

·       National Council of State Legislatures – Examples of Policies Related to Legislative Use of Social Media http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/telecommunications-information-technology/policies-for-legislative-social-media-social-net.aspx

·       News Service of Florida – Open Records Challenged by Social Networking http://www.jaxobserver.com/2010/02/23/open-records-challenged-by-social-networking/

·       Sun-Sentinel – Tweets, postings trigger public records rules for officials http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/fl-social-media-government-20120206,0,3353953.story