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Cerritos council agrees in principle to open social‑media comments; asks staff to update policy and moderation plan
Summary
The council voted 5–0 to direct staff to return with updates to the city’s digital communications policy and to proceed toward enabling comments on official social media channels after policy and moderator training are in place.
The Cerritos City Council on April 10 voted unanimously to direct staff to revise the city’s digital communications policy and return with a report that would allow the city to enable public comments on its social media platforms.
Background: The city expanded official social accounts in 2023 and had intentionally disabled public comments during a 12‑month trial. Staff presented account growth numbers — Instagram pages for the city and the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts exceed 3,000 followers combined and Facebook followers have roughly doubled over the past year — and described recent high‑performing posts. Staff said the city has continued to post but maintained comments disabled pending council direction.
Why it matters: Council members and staff discussed the First Amendment limits that govern public agency social pages, the need for moderator training, and how the city would remove unlawful or policy‑violating content. City Attorney advised that moderation staff will need training on constitutional protections (for example, profanity is protected speech and only certain categories can be lawfully removed). Mayor Pro Tem Linda Johnson framed the change as a transparency move: “By allowing residents to comment on these platforms, we are letting them know that this council does not want to silence them.”
What was approved: The council voted 5–0 to open comments pending a staff report that revises the digital communications policy, addresses AB‑style legal changes referenced by staff, and lays out moderation procedures and required staff training. The council’s motion asked staff to return with a concrete policy update and implementation plan; staff said the timeline will allow time to review law, update procedures, and train moderators before comments are enabled.
Operational points raised: Staff recommended linking the social pages to the city’s digital communications policy and warned that enabling comments will increase moderation workload. Mayor Pro Tem Johnson suggested staff commit to twice‑daily moderation checks for removals of posts that violate a limited set of disallowed categories (e.g., discriminatory or violent content), and the city attorney emphasized that moderators must be trained to distinguish protected from unprotected speech.
Ending: Staff will draft a revised policy and moderation plan and return to council with an implementation timeline; council members asked for the report to include proposed monitoring cadence and a training plan for staff moderators.
