Muskegon officials review new social media use policy after U.S. Supreme Court guidance

City of Muskegon Community Engagement Manager Deborah Sweet on Monday presented a draft social media use policy intended to separate personal and official accounts and reduce legal exposure for staff and elected officials.

The policy comes after what Sweet described as a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision involving a dispute over a public official’s Facebook page; the presentation summarized a two‑part test the court uses to determine whether a social account qualifies as a government forum for First Amendment purposes. Sweet said the draft was written with legal counsel and aims to protect “our staff, public officials, our committees, our departments.”

The draft distinguishes personal pages from official city accounts, defines “official social media account” as those created or maintained by the city manager or designee, and requires city approval for any account registered as official. It advises staff and elected officials to keep personal accounts separate, not use city email or passwords for personal profiles, and add a personal‑views disclaimer when commenting on city business.

Sweet said official accounts will be administered by a limited set of authorized staff, and the city’s IT team will have administrative access to help recover or secure pages. The policy also outlines content rules for city pages (no partisan endorsements, profanity, confidential information or commercial spam), retention of posts under Michigan FOIA, and annual account audits conducted by the city manager or designee.

Commissioners pressed staff on several details. Commissioner Cochin asked whether personal posts that share official, already‑public city information could be subject to FOIA; city staff said such routine reposting of official content would be unlikely to trigger FOIA exposure but cautioned that posting unpublished internal information could. The city manager advised that a clear personal disclaimer can strengthen the city’s position that a personal page is private. Sweet and the manager also suggested taking screenshots or saving posts rather than deleting them if preservation is needed for a future records request.

Several commissioners expressed concern about the line between guidance for official pages and restrictions on personal speech. Commissioner Kilgo and others said the policy appropriately governs official city accounts but should avoid policing personal accounts; staff agreed the draft addresses official pages and only offers guidance for personal accounts. Vice Mayor Saint Clair and other commissioners suggested clarifying comment moderation practices and posting a short external policy link on each official page explaining response times and moderation rules.

Sweet noted the Muskegon Police Department has a stricter social media policy that will continue to apply to police accounts. The presentation also said official pages are a “limited public forum,” that social media is not an emergency communication channel, and that under the policy users should not be blocked from official city accounts except in the narrow categories (threats, explicit content, personal identifying data, fraud/spam, safety risks).

The commission asked staff to finalize the draft and bring it forward for formal adoption. The presentation and the discussion were intended to help commissioners, staff and the public understand the legal test and the city’s proposed controls for official social channels.