Social Media for Texas Local Governments: How to Stay Compliant and Meet Best Practices

How Social Media Content Falls Under Public Records Laws in Texas

Social media is one of the best ways for local governments to keep residents updated on important news and events. But when it comes to open records laws, social media management can get complicated. Every state has regulations that classify social posts as public record, with various specifications for how government officials should handle them. In the state of Texas, these laws include:

• The Texas Public Information Act (PIA)
  In 2013, the PIA was updated to incorporate internet postings and other electronic communications with Senate Bill 1368. This causes social media content to fall under Texas public records laws.
• Texas Senate Bill 944
  This is an amendment to the PIA that tightens regulations around public records storage. Under SB 944, public information officers (PIO) are responsible for obtaining public records — including social media — and protecting it from “deterioration, alteration, mutilation, loss, or unlawful removal.” Importantly, this also includes any records that are created and stored on the personal devices of government officials, which they are required to present to the PIO within ten days for archiving.

To stay compliant with Texas laws while using social media to engage with your community, government officials should take the following steps:

• Know who the current PIO is and understand the agency’s retention policy and archival methods for social media.
• Avoid creating posts related to professional business on private devices or accounts. Anyone who does this should quickly turn records over to the PIO to prevent them from getting loss or damage.
• Use archiving methods that fully preserve the information contained in posts — including deleted comments — in a secure, searchable way. Social media archiving software can do this automatically in real time.