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Council debate over livestreaming ends with no change to single-platform hosting; motion to dual-stream fails
Summary
Council considered whether to continue hosting council videos on a single repository (YouTube with links posted to social platforms) or to restore dual streaming directly to Facebook Live. A motion to reinstate dual streaming failed, 2-5.
Goldsboro City Council members debated Aug. 18 whether the city should host live meeting videos on multiple social platforms (Facebook Live and YouTube) or consolidate storage and hosting to a single platform.
Councilwoman Matthews pressed to restore Facebook Live as a streaming source, saying Facebook is where the citys largest audience engages and that removing it limited access. "I am asking this board to reconsider your decision to still show our streams on Facebook live of our city council meetings," Matthews said during debate.
Staff and other council members said the citys current approach posts a link to the meeting video stored on YouTube and that Channel 10 (the local government access channel) remained available. City technical staff explained Facebook retains livestreams for a limited time and that keeping a single archived repository (YouTube) ensures long-term access; several council members said links from Facebook can point viewers to the YouTube archive.
Councilwoman Matthews moved to restore direct Facebook Live streaming and also maintain YouTube as a storage hub (dual-stream); the motion was seconded. The motion failed on a 2-5 roll-call vote. After the vote staff said the current arrangement — posting a link to the YouTube livestream on the citys Facebook page, with Channel 10 still available for TV viewers — would remain in place.
