Social media and public records, January 13, 2012
24 contributors
Links:
- Public employees and social media
- U.S agencies to launch joint FOIA portal
- Many govts explicitly state that social media is public records and warn employees. See Oregon's Social Networking Guide.
- Have you tweeted WikiLeaks? Be warned!. Columbia Spectator warned about retweeting Wikileaks and applying for government positions.
- Facebook complicated for public officials. In 2009, Florida AG issued opinion that social media receive same status as other public records.
- Multi-agency FOIA Portal to Launch Fall 2012.
- Tweets from the Chiefs. The immediate risk to open government compliance is that social networks facilitate communication among government employees too well.
- Lt. Gov. Murray e-mails shed little light on crash; cell phone records not available. Phone records an issue in Boston.
- Government’s monitoring of social media raises privacy concerns
- Armed, near-naked man terrorizes neighborhood
- 9 Ways City Councils Can Use Facebook, including announcing meetings and posting documents online.
- "Friend" or Foe: The legal risks and annoyances for officials using social networking sites
Tips:
- In DuPage County public records and social media are playing a role in a legislative election. One candidate was arrested for a DUI and his opponent FOIAd the video and released it over YouTube.
- The Library of Congress archived all tweets.
- In my experience, local governments haven't been able to produce a sincere social media presence. Too robotic, cautious of rules.
- Regarding protecting your privacy online: Always assume that anyone, anytime can read whatever you post!
- Most social media platforms have built-in records retention (e.g. Downloadable Facebook data).
- Avoiding open meetings rules: “a town council in NC I covered had a tendency to go out for drinks after mtgs, because they had a quorum ..”
- In my experience, local governments haven't been able to produce a sincere social media presence. Too robotic, cautious of rules.
- Whether texts should be records is hot topic in Utah and a key element of HB477 last year.
- NICAR listserv touched on deleted files not long ago. Shredded papers are rough, but it's possible to retrieve deleted e-files.
- Even if not strictly discoverable, it's reasonable to assume the government will use social media like law firms.
Questions:
- What steps have governments taken to ensure consistent FOIA policy re: soc media? How does this help reporters/citizens?
- How has social media changed access to meaningful data?
- How does government social media help citizens?
- Do strict records retention policies discourage citizen engagement through social media?
- If a government is noncompliant with retention policy, is there a way to obtain deleted information?
