Government agencies are required to keep an archive of content from social media which includes the entire conversation and all comments. Here’s how to create an archiving strategy that is compliant with social media. strategy.

Christina NewberryJuly 4, 2023

Table of Contents What is the purpose of social media archiving in government agencies? How is the process of archives regulated by the public sector? How do you preserve records of social media and be legally compliant. Hootsuite is a great tool for archiving social media

Archiving social media for government agencies is an essential part for compliance plan. Social media platforms are a means to communicate with constituents as well as members of the public at large. They are accessible to the public through open records and First Amendment laws, just as other forms of public communication.

Content shared on official social media sites is in default publically accessible. However, the open record laws demand extensive archiving process for information than social media platforms themselves are able to provide. Agency administrators must ensure that their social media data is archived to allow access for journalists and the public at large. Continue reading to learn how you can stay in compliance with the most efficient workflow for archiving.

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Book a DemoWhat exactly is social media archiving to do for agencies of the government?

Social media archiving by the government is a part of the open records laws. The social media platform is considered a public platform and should be archived in this manner.

An appropriate archive of your social media’s content and communications also permits users to address public records requests as well as Freedom of Information requests. Also, you need to archive your social media comments in the event that you are confronted with an First Amendment challenge.

How is social media archive being regulated by the public sector?

Social media archives regulations differ by country and by states. The most common element can be found in the fact that media content is usually classified as a public record.

Government agencies and organizations need to keep an archive of content from social media. This includes all comments as well as conversations. The information must be made available to citizens and journalists who ask for it.

The needs for archiving are very specific and could include:

• The collection of social media metadata
• Restoring the information in the original form
• Recording social media accounts for a specific period of time
• Comments that are archived, even if they’re deleted or kept secret
• Recording the context of all threads of comments
• The data is maintained in a certain geographic area

Each jurisdiction comes with its own privacy rules. They affect the information that government agencies are allowed to post in social media. For instance government agencies can post on social media. For example, the Government of British Columbia has Guidelines for the Use of Government for Social Media. They state that the following subjects are prohibited:

• Anything that is currently in the courts
• Confidential information, such as draft legislation and policy advice
• Information on identifiable third parties, without the authorization of a statutory law

Citizenship can inspire individuals to share personal data through social media. This is especially the case when people post photos. This is a crucial aspect to think about when considering collecting and archiving data.

How can you archive documents on social media, and remain legally compliant

The compliance of social media is a constant problem to all agencies of government. Particularly for those who are involved in active citizen engagement.

You require a thorough strategy to archive social media. This will ensure that you have all the data that you require

• adhere to the law
• Respond to requests for FOI information,
• to address First Amendment challenges, and
• Increase transparency in the government.

Create policies for archiving and procedures

As with any good compliance plan the archiving process must be based on solid foundations. The policies and procedures for archiving serve as the base on the foundation of all your recordskeeping is based.

As you develop your policy make sure you conduct a thorough examination of the law that applies to your area to ensure you adhere to every aspect.

For instance the privacy and data protection policies oblige social media to be stored within Australian Data centers. This means that Australian government agencies must use archiving software with storage options for data within Australia such as Brolly that is integrated into Hootsuite.

Create your archive policies and processes into your overall guidelines for social media. So, your staff who work with social media will have quick access to the most up-to-date guidelines at all times.

Bonus: Download a no-cost, custom social guidelines template for media for quick and effortlessly develop recommendations for your company and employees.

Include an outlined procedure for approving any new social media accounts. As many accounts an organization utilizes, the more accounts you’ll have to archive. Do all departments need their own social media channels? It’s possible but there needs to be a purpose-driven reason behind each account. When a new account goes live, be sure to integrate it into your archive process.

Keep the entire social media content

Similar to what we have said previously the content of social media is regarded as a to be part of public records. This includes ALL social media communications via your social media channels.

It’s possible to ask why you require a specific archive of your social media posts. It’s all publically accessible via your social media accounts. But the social media platforms are private-sector businesses. They aren’t legally bound by lawful open record laws. This means that there’s no assurance that social networks will keep your information forever.

In addition, if you modify or delete content, you must keep track of these modifications. The Open Records Act requires that you keep a copy of each post that is made available for public viewing.

Also, you must keep a log of any comments posted on your social media accounts. This is true even the case that you must delete or block them due to reasons such as:

• Identification details,
• threats of violence
• profanity,
• and so on.

It is also important to take into consideration the possibility that someone might edit or delete your own remarks. They are still needed to be in your archive. Without an archive solution you are unable to find a comment which they remove from your website.

In addition to the open records laws, you must to ensure your organization’s security in the event of an First Amendment challenge. This means that you should have the archive for all hidden or deleted comments

Comments made to official social media accounts of government agencies generally fall within First Amendment protections. Your social media policies should contain an acceptable use policy that specifies what kinds of comments are acceptable and the reasons for it. Your archive allows you to show an underlying reason for the removal.

It is also recommended to keep the records of any media in which you’re identified or mentioned, since it could count as a form of communications. Be aware of the content you’ve being mentioned or tagged is an ideal practice for everyone who uses social media. It’s a great method of understanding the conversations about you on the internet. For government agencies, it’s crucial.

In other words, you will require specifically designed social media archive tools to use in government. It is only the best way to preserve the conversations with your citizens and adhere to the law.

In addition the fact that social is public record implies that it is not possible to block individuals from following your official social media accounts. Archiving is just one aspect of complying with the laws on public records, however, it’s not all-encompassing. Read our comprehensive blog post to learn all you must be aware of the compliance of the government agencies who use social media..

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Watch nowInclude metadata and other contextual information.

Open records legislation in numerous states requires that you save social media posts with metadata and information about the context. For instance, U.S. courts have generally held that screenshots by themselves do not constitute a complete record of a thread on a comment.

Why? Because a screenshot is an image. And images are editable. This is the reason why social media archives for the government should contain metadata and other the context of the image.

Let’s start with metadata. Metadata isn’t visible on social media pages. However, it is in an in-between of content online. Metadata collects data about every post and comment, such as:

• Who was the person who posted it
• The exact date they published it (timestamp)
• What devices did they use?

It is possible to see that, for instance, if someone has multiple accounts to make multiple comments on using the same computer. Additionally, all of these metadata helps your company verify that the data that you have in your archive are genuine. It proves that they are accurate and haven’t been altered. Without metadata the social media archive file is not likely to be accepted by a judge.

Contextual information reveals the context within which the comment was posted. It is crucial because it can help to understand the complete intention behind what was said. Content may also provide information about the reason the reason why a comment was required to be removed or concealed.

A standalone comment could appear to have no basis for being deleted. What about the contents of a comment thread? If the participants respond to each other this comment may be interpreted as revealing an identifiable profile of the other party, which is against privacy laws, or to suggest the threat to another user.

An archive that has complete metadata and context information can help you reconstruct a full online conversation. You’ll have information and details that otherwise would be lost.

Create archived content that is accessible and searchable

The main reason to archive open records is to be able to access it and make it available to journalists and citizens who make a Freedom of Information request. To do this your archive must be safe and easily accessible to the right members of your staff.

Additionally, it should be searchable to ensure that you can locate any relevant content whenever asked for. Social media archive tools for the government must have sophisticated search features. It should be possible to search for content that falls within the specific time period, by using specific keywords or user information. The ability to tag content as well as include notes in the archive is useful when you want to find social media content.

Also, it’s crucial to be able to access any deleted or hidden content as well as comments. This is particularly important in the event of an First Amendment challenge. It is essential to know the entire context for confirming any decisions regarding taking public comments off your website.

Inability to respond to requests for information under freedom of access or legal challenge can result in severe financial and legal consequences. An organized and user-friendly archive will protect your organization from lawsuits as well as other punitive actions.

The benefit? An extensive archive that is searchable helps to understand the trends in comment and questions. This could indicate the need for more resources to support a specific policy or program.

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Sign up to receive a free subscriptionReview your processes regularly

Social media changes fast. The law governing social media isn’t moving at the same speed but it’s not a guarantee that it will be the same for eternity. Additionally, the tools to preserve social media content and increase compliance change.

This means that you should examine your archiving processes frequently. You have the option of defining the term “regularly” means to your company, but you should plan for an in-depth audit of social media at least every quarter.

For government agencies, the audit on social media should include the auditing of your archives procedures and process.

Check that any brand new accounts on social networks are included in your archiving system. Examine the policies for archiving and procedures with employees older and younger. You can assign someone in your team to keep track of any modifications to legislation. Be sure to mention them during your regular review if they’ve not been addressed yet.

Archiving social media using Hootsuite

When you choose the tools to archive your social media to ensure compliance with government regulations it is crucial to select a reliable and secure company. To protect information belonging to citizens and the government The U.S. government requires all cloud-based services utilized in federal government agencies to comply with through the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program known as FedRAMP.

Hootsuite is licensed by FedRAMP. This identifies Hootsuite as a feasible automated government social media archive solution. Hootsuite also fulfills the specifications for FCA, IIROC, SEC, PCI, AMF, and MiFID II. This is the reason more than 2,000 public and government sector agencies utilize Hootsuite for managing their online presence.

Hootsuite works with compliance solutions such as ProofPoint and Brolly to ensure that your government’s social media account safe. Brolly specifically makes an archive that is secure and contains social media content, which includes metadata, context images, hyperlinks as well as videos.

Comments and posts are immediately archived in real-time including deletions, edits and hidden comments.

This capability in real-time is crucial as people are able to alter their mind quickly while engaged in fierce debate. You must keep a track of comments which appear on your website for just the duration of a few minutes.

In your archive you are able to make use of tags, notes, and advanced search to locate the data you require to satisfy FOI record demands or for legal discovery. You can also upload archives to an eRDMS in a manual manner or using an automated program.