Okaloosa County adopts social media policy, directs staff to develop implementation guidance

Okaloosa County commissioners voted unanimously to adopt a draft social media policy and delegated staff to develop implementation guidance for employees and departments. County attorney's office staff presented a policy that, officials said, balances the county's need to communicate with the public and employees' First Amendment protections. The policy addresses content regulation, user conduct, handling public feedback, compliance with state and federal law and current case law trends. The board reviewed a last-minute clarification added to subsection h that prohibits using county names, logos, phone numbers or email addresses on personal social sites if doing so would create the appearance of an official county account. The clarification also says the policy is not intended to prohibit casual reflections of work life, such as photos of an employee wearing a county uniform. Commissioners praised the draft but asked staff to build additional guardrails and implementation steps. Commissioner Goodwin asked for safeguards so personal posts that include county logos cannot be misconstrued as county statements. Commissioner Cox and others suggested developing an implementation guide rather than overly prescriptive rules that might push employees to create anonymous or "ghost" accounts. The board adopted the policy and unanimously approved an amendment delegating staff, including the public information officer and HR, to create and circulate implementation guidance and to report back if refinements are needed.