This page provides an overview of various approaches to social media policies for local government staff and officials in Washington State, including sample policy language and examples.
It is part of MRSC's Electronic Records Policy Tool Kit, created in partnership with the Washington State Auditor's Center for Government Innovation.
Overview
Social media is a complex topic from both a legal and policy standpoint. This page focuses on the intersection between social media and the Public Records Act (PRA). For more information about social media policies and their general management, see MRSC's blog Establishing Effective Social Media Policies and the section in this page offering Examples of Internal Social Media Management Policies.
Issues to consider with respect to social media and the PRA include:
- Ensuring that the agency has proper procedures in place to retain social media posts and associated comments with respect to official agency (as opposed to personal) social media accounts
- Clarifying that use of personal (including campaign) social media accounts should not be used to create public records and providing guidance to agency officials and employees on best practices in that regard.
With respect to personal social media accounts, there has been clarification from the Washington Court of Appeals that a councilmember's personal Facebook posts do not constitute public records if they are not created within the councilmember’s official capacity. However, it is important to note that there still are situations in which use of a personal social media account may result in creation of a public record. For more information, see West v. City of Puyallup, and MRSC’s blog New Ruling Finds Facebook Posts Can Be a Public Record.
Agency Social Media Accounts
There are several important elements of agency social media policies including the following:
- Content posted to agency social media accounts is a public record
- Agencies need to maintain content on agency social media accounts in accordance with applicable retention requirements
- Posting secondary copies instead of original public records on social media is encouraged to avoid retention problems
Examples
- Stanwood Social Media Policy (2013) - Contains general public records policy language and then sets forth specific standards for use of Facebook and Twitter at Section 3.3.9 and Section 4.3 respectively.
Personal Social Media Accounts
Some social media policies are limited to agency social media accounts and do not address use of personal social media accounts for discussing issues pertaining to the agency. The policies that address personal social media accounts generally provide information to employees and officials on how to avoid creating public records on their personal accounts.
Examples
Examples of Internal Social Media Management Policies
Below are some examples of policies focused on the general management of social media for agency staff and departments from local jurisdictions. Policies are ordered by jurisdiction type and population size.
Cities over 50,000 population
Cities between 10,000 and 50,000 population
Cities and towns under 10,000 population
Counties over 125,000 population
Counties under 125,000 population
Examples of Special Purpose District Policies
Recommended Resources
Below are some resources that provide best practices and guidelines on social media use for government agencies.