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Public Records Laws and Social Media Retention in
Kentucky

Kentucky Open Records Act and Social Media

Social media records in Kentucky fall under the Kentucky Open Records Act. The Law requires that government agencies manage and maintain all content that they prepared, owned, used, or possess, “regardless of physical form.” Under this definition, social media records in Kentucky do qualify as a public record and therefore must be retained.

Guidance on Social Media Records in Kentucky from the Department for Libraries and Archives

The Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives has provided guidelines that explain when social media records in Kentucky should be retained. The document clarifies that social media content does meet the definition of “public records” as outlined in the Kentucky Open Records act and therefore “must be managed in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations.”

Kentucky Social Media Records Management in Practice

The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government Customer Use Policy for Social Media allows for deleting comments that violate their content policy, but does not require that records be retained. Partial policies like this expose governments to risk, such as First Amendment lawsuits and other legal headaches. The Lexington Police Department references this policy for their department, however they further clarify it on their Facebook page by stating that content is “subject to public disclosure.”

Social Media Record Retention Legal News in Kentucky

Read about Kentucky cases and precedents involving social media and public record retention.

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Assistant chief of police’s social media records requested by media, upheld by judge.

After the assistant chief of police was accused of sending racially-charged messages on social media, the media requested the records of the messages under the state’s Open Records Act, and a judge also ordered the records as evidence to be released.