What Facebook's Updated Live Video Policy Means for Local Government Leaders

Facebook Live videos can be an effective tool to increase resident engagement—and like other social media content, they’re considered public record. This means that local governments may be required to produce Live videos as part of a records request.

In an important update that impacts archiving, Facebook recently released its Live Video Storage Policy, which now limits how long users can access and save their videos. Let’s review some of the highlights of the new policy, what it means for you, and how automated social media archiving takes this concern off your plate.

Overview of the Updated Facebook Live Video Storage Policy

On February 19, Facebook updated its policy so Live videos will no longer be stored indefinitely on the platform. Here are some key points from the policy:

• 30-day Storage Limit for New Videos: Any new Facebook Live videos “can be replayed, downloaded, or shared from your Facebook Pages or profiles for 30 days, after which they will automatically be removed from Facebook.” This is done to align with industry standards and provide users with up-to-date experiences. It’s important to note that this part of the policy is already in effect.
• 90-day Deadline for Archival Videos: If your agency has archival Live videos, Facebook will notify you by email and in the app before they’re removed. After you’re notified, “you will have 90 days to choose what to do with your old live content.”
• Tools for Preservation: Facebook offers a few download tools to save your videos. Users have the option of downloading videos individually or in bulk, transferring videos to a cloud provider like Dropbox or Google Drive, or clipping them into shorter reels.
• Extended Timeline: Users that need more time to preserve their archival Live videos can postpone deletion for an additional six months, until Aug. 18, 2025. This requires an additional step within the platform, which is explained in the policy.

4 Next Steps to Archive Facebook Live Videos Efficiently

Today, many local governments are already using an automated solution, like CivicPlus Social Media Archiving, to archive their social content. For those agencies, this policy change does not have an impact, as your content is already being archived.

For agencies who aren’t already automating their social content archiving, there are manual steps you can take to update your social media governance strategy to accommodate the new policy. Here are four next steps to consider when manually archiving your Facebook Live videos:

1. Take Inventory: It’s important to document all of the Facebook Live videos that currently exist on your agency’s page or profile. This will help you understand the project scope of downloading or transferring your videos.
2. Set Deadlines: Make sure to set appropriate deadlines for downloading or transferring archival Live videos, preferably in advance of the 90 days given by Facebook. Also consider necessary deadlines for archiving any new videos within the 30-day timeframe.
3. Assign Responsibilities: Once you’ve set deadlines, identify the individuals or teams that are responsible for archiving these videos. Establishing these roles and responsibilities can help prevent costly errors that may occur if Live videos are not properly archived.
4. Update Your Policies and Procedures: Now is a good time to revisit your social media policy or create one if you haven’t done so already. Policies and procedures may need to be updated to include relevant details about archiving Facebook Live videos.

If you haven’t already adopted a social media archiving solution, it’s important to act quickly whenever a social media platform changes a policy, as this can have a significant impact to your agency’s compliance efforts.

Rest Easy with Social Media Archiving

If you don’t want to take those steps, we don’t blame you. Manually archiving social media content is time-consuming, error-prone, and distracts you from more important work.

CivicPlus Social Media Archiving is the only dependable social media archiving software to capture and preserve all social media content, supporting compliance with public records laws. Agencies can easily meet compliance demands and fulfill complex requests with a scalable solution that saves time and reduces errors. If you’re ready to start automating your social media content, reach out to schedule a demo.