Whether municipal officials are starting a new social media page, or are looking to enhance an existing social media strategy, using Facebook, Instagram, X or any other platform can be a valuable tool. Social media provides a cost-effective way for cities to promote resident engagement, create transparency and catch the attention of visitors and businesses.
Beyond simply highlighting what the community has to offer, many cities use social media as part of their emergency action planning, since instantaneous communication is possible. Social media offers two-way communication, which allows residents to easily share concerns with their municipality on everything from damaged sidewalks to missed trash pickups. A growing number of city councils are livestreaming their public meetings on social media, opening up the government’s operations to more people than ever before, and some are even accepting public comments online.
The benefits of social media come with pitfalls as well. Posts can create liability for the municipality, and could, in a lawsuit, contribute to a judgment against the municipality.
Setting policies
To help reduce the potential liability of social media, municipalities should have a policy that outlines who can post on behalf of the municipality and the types of content that staff can post in an official capacity. Designating specific individuals to post information — ideally someone with training and experience in communication — allows the municipality to have more control over the content.
Maintaining a point person for social media also helps with credibility as well, when the city selects someone who can properly vet the information for accuracy and to maintain professionalism in everything from the tone to the grammar and spelling used in posts.
Maintaining records
Social media use by public entities is considered public record, and can be subject to public records laws. The SC Freedom of Information Act requires the retention of social media content. In cases where a municipality receives a FOIA request for social media records, the social media platform itself may not have the records, especially if they were deleted. Services that archive social media records are available by paid subscription. At the very least, cities need to be making a record of any user posts they removed that violate city policies.
Moderating user comments
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution limits a municipality’s ability to do things like delete a post or ban a user, and a key issue for social media platforms is whether the local government has created an open public forum or limited public forum. In an open public forum, which a municipality might establish by inviting or allowing open comment on any topic, the government may impose very few regulations.
Municipalities should take care to avoid establishing open public forums on social media. If they allow comments, they should include language and rules that create limited public forums, where expression is available only for a specific purpose or topic. With the rules of such a forum established and posted, a municipality could enforce viewpoint-neutral terms and conditions for commenting. For example, they could prohibit profanity, threats or racist statements. Courts have found, however, that deleting comments that criticize the municipality or its employees violates the First Amendment, even in a limited public forum.
For more information on FOIA issues, see the Public Official's Guide to Compliance with the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act, found online.