Social Media, Public Records, and FOIA: What Government Professionals Need to Know

It’s increasingly rare for a local government agency not to maintain an active social media presence. Many communities now rely on these feeds for the kinds of updates residents used to get primarily from websites, phone calls, and the evening news.

Our 2025 State of Public Sector Social Media Survey reflects the increased importance of government social media accounts. 92% of agencies say social platforms are essential to their communication strategy (up from 85% in 2022). Over 64% of agencies now post daily or multiple times a week, and 53% use their social media accounts to respond directly to resident questions and service requests.

Governments across the nation send out a variety of common messages: detour notices, updates on service delays, warnings about extreme weather, event cancellations, and other dispatches to keep residents safe and informed. Over time, these posts and interactions begin to function like a public-facing log of what the agency said, when it was said, and how the public responded. Everyday social media content increasingly serves as an operational record that agencies may need to preserve.

This blog breaks down when social media content may be treated as a public record, what agencies should plan to capture, and what recent Supreme Court decisions mean for official use and moderation. It also explores how state-level guidance is changing to account for modern public sector communication and why many agencies are moving to automated archiving tools.

Are Social Media Posts Public Records?

In general, social media content created, received, or used as part of government business can be considered a public record. That includes posts published from official accounts and can also include content created through day-to-day interactions on these platforms.

Retention requirements and definitions of public record vary by state, and many frameworks include practical limits on what can be requested based on the feasibility and burden of producing records.

Depending on your state and how your accounts are used, a social media record could include:

• The post’s content: Text, images, videos, links, livestreams
• Comments and replies: Including threaded conversations
• Edits and deletions: Changes to captions, updated links, removed comments and replies
• Direct messages: Non-public-facing conversations about official business and responses to residents
• Metadata: Timestamps, author IDs, URLs, and other technical details that help prove what happened and when
• Moderation actions: Hidden comments, deleted replies, blocked and muted users
• Lists and settings tied to moderation: Blocked lists and keyword filters

Your legal counsel or records officer are your best sources for determining what must be retained, for how long, and in what formats.

What Happens When Public Records Requests Include Social Media Content?

When residents comment, staff edit captions, or moderation tools remove content, the official social media record includes more than just the final post. That additional material, including comments, edit histories, timestamps, and moderation logs, may be included as part of a record request. Without reliable archiving and retrieval systems, public information officers may struggle to collect the full context needed to comply with requests and document how decisions are made.

Depending on their state’s specific public records laws, agencies may receive requests for content that is not easily found with manual scrolling and searching, such as direct messages, deleted comments, or moderation actions. In 2018, a Washington university received a request from the Chronicle of Higher Education seeking every direct message sent from the school’s Facebook and Twitter (now X) accounts in the previous year. Director of Digital Engagement Elise Perachio noted that colleagues at other colleges and universities received similarly broad requests around the same time.

Police departments in Santa Barbara, CA and Grafton, WI have also seen comprehensive records requests that would have made manual searching and archiving unfeasible. Both implemented CivicPlus^® Social Media Archiving to quickly capture a complete record of social media content (including deleted posts) related to events in their community.

As public records requests grow in volume and complexity nationwide, requests like these are arriving more and more often. At the federal level, agencies reported more than 1.5 million Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests in FY 2024 alone, a record-setting number.

Recent Supreme Court Decisions and Government Social Media

Two 2024 U.S. Supreme Court decisions are central to how courts analyze whether activity on a social media account qualifies as state action:

• Lindke v. Freed: The Court explained that a public official’s social media activity is considered state action when the official has actual authority to speak on the government’s behalf on the topic and the official purports to exercise that authority in the post or interaction.
• O’Connor-Ratcliff v. Garnier: Asked to consider whether blocking a critical user constituted a First Amendment violation, the Court vacated and remanded this case for reconsideration under the same framework described in Lindke.

What Does the Lindke Test Mean for Local Governments and Public Agencies?

• If a staff member uses an account to conduct official business, courts may treat certain actions on that account as state action.
• When moderation decisions are tied to state action, agencies could face increased scrutiny.

State-Level Guidance on Social Media Record Requests

Many states have issued guidance that reinforces the same takeaway: If social media content documents official business, agencies should have a defensible way of retaining it. Guidelines vary, offering useful insights into how similar requirements can be interpreted and applied differently across the country.

Washington

“Are social media posts public records? YES – If a post relates to public business (the work of the agency) then it is considered a public record in RCW 40.14.010.”

Maine

“State Agencies and Departments are required to manage and retain their social media records if they hold accounts on social media networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, blogs, wikis, etc.”

Missouri

“Agencies should not rely on social media sites to retain their documents, as that responsibility lies with the agency. Posts, comments, polls, photographs, and other content may be considered records.”

New Jersey

“’Government record’ or ‘record’ means any paper, written or printed book, document, drawing, map, plan, photograph, microfilm, data processed or image processed document, information stored or maintained electronically or by sound-recording or in a similar device, or any copy thereof, that has been made, maintained or kept on file in the course of official public business by any officer, commission, agency or authority of the State or of any political subdivision thereof, including subordinate boards thereof, or that has been received in the course of official public business by any such officer, commission, agency or authority of the State or of any political subdivision thereof, including subordinate boards thereof.”

Oregon

“Social media is often used by agencies to disseminate information to the public, so it is generally considered to be in the same category as press or news releases and is subject to the same retention requirements.”

Florida

“‘Public records’ means all documents, papers, letters, maps, books, tapes, photographs, films, sound recordings, data processing software, or other material, regardless of the physical form, characteristics, or means of transmission, made or received pursuant to law or ordinance or in connection with the transaction of official business by any agency.”

North Carolina

“’Public record’” or ‘public records’ shall mean all documents, papers, letters, maps, books, photographs, films, sound recordings, magnetic or other tapes, electronic data-processing records, artifacts, or other documentary material, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or received pursuant to law or ordinance in connection with the transaction of public business by any agency of North Carolina government or its subdivisions.”

Pennsylvania

“A record is defined as ‘any information regardless of its physical form or character that documents a transaction or activity of an agency AND is created, received, or retained pursuant to law OR in connection with a transaction, business or activity of an agency.’

Texas

“The general forms in which the media containing public information exist include a book, paper, letter, document, e-mail, Internet posting, text message, instant message, other electronic communication, printout, photograph, film, tape, microfiche, microfilm, photostat, sound recording, map, and drawing and a voice, data, or video representation held in computer memory.”

Social Media Records Request Challenges and the Pitfalls of Manual Archiving

Compliant social media records request management poses unique challenges, in part because social platforms were built for quick publishing and interactions, not long-term retention. Any team could struggle to maintain complete public records, especially when content is spread across multiple accounts, administrators, and platforms.

Roadblocks to Public Records Compliance on Social Media

• The record is distributed: A single records request may require content that appears in multiple places, including the original posts, comment threads, pinned replies, and direct messages, sometimes across several different pages.
• The platform controls the interface: What you can view, export, or retrieve is shaped by platform settings and product updates, not by your required retention schedule.
• Activity happens outside business hours: Posting, replying, and moderation actions can occur at any time on any day, making constant monitoring by staff members effectively impossible.
• Content and context change quickly: Clarifying edits and fast-moving comment threads make it challenging to capture and reconstruct what was visible to residents at a specific moment without an automated process for monitoring activity.

Where Manual Record Retention Methods Come Up Short

• Screenshots are incompatible by design: They rarely capture full threads, timestamps, edit histories, or the surrounding context needed to prove what happened and when.
• Copying and pasting is time-consuming and inconsistent: Record completeness depends on who captured the data, what they remembered to include, and whether anything changed between capture attempts.
• Moderation activity is easy to lose: Without reliable logs, it’s not easy to show what was hidden or removed, when, and under what policy.

Why Social Records Request Management Challenges Create Compliance Risk

Manual processes and persistent challenges do more than just slow teams down. They can make it challenging to respond fully and accurately to public records requests, especially when requesters ask for “all related content.”

Incomplete or inconsistent preservation can also create avoidable legal exposure. If a comment disappears and there is no way to demonstrate whether it was deleted by the user, removed for violation of a documented policy, or hidden unintentionally, the agency may appear to be concealing information.

Social Media Archiving Best Practices for Agencies

Addressing these risks starts with clear policies and repeatable processes.

• Clearly designate official accounts and authorized users
• Keep personal and official communications separate whenever possible
• Adopt and document a content moderation policy that aligns with First Amendment protections
• Document moderation actions and retain all supporting context
• Conduct periodic content and retention reviews
• Train staff on records request management responsibilities, including how edits, deletions, and direct messages can become part of the complete public record

How Automated Social Media Archiving Helps

Moving beyond manual capturing supports improved speed, completeness, consistency, and defensibility in responses to records requests.

CivicPlus Social Media Archiving is designed to automatically archive, store, and retain social media records in their native format, even when content is then edited or deleted. It captures 90% of records within 30 seconds and supports major networks including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and X.

Learn More About CivicPlus Social Media Archiving

To see what automated archiving and streamlined records request responses look like in action, try a self-guided demo of Social Media Archiving.

Disclaimer:
This content is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. CivicPlus makes no guarantees as to the accuracy or suitability of this material and disclaims all liability for actions taken or not taken based on it. Use of this content does not create any attorney-client or advisory relationship. You should consult your own legal counsel before adopting or implementing any policies. CivicPlus may update or withdraw this material at any time without notice.