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City attorney and staff brief council on social-media legal risks: public-forum, copyright and data-practice obligations
Summary
Legal and communications staff reviewed liability and data-practice issues for council members' social-media use, recommending separate city accounts, disclaimers when posting as individuals, limiting advocacy on pending matters and careful handling of copyrighted content and private data.
City legal and communications staff briefed the council on social-media liability, data practices and best practices for elected officials at the Dec. 9 workshop.
Sarah explained that when an elected official operates a public-facing account on a government page, that account may be treated as a public forum and removing commenters can create First Amendment concerns. She cited a case example (Hoyt v. Goodman) in which advocacy on social media created legal exposure for a council member and the municipality. Sarah also warned about copyright claims for posted images and the city’s responsibility under Minnesota’s Government Data Practices Act (Minn. Stat. § 13.02) to produce social-media records in response to data requests.
Her recommendations included: using separate city accounts for municipal communications; including a disclaimer when posting as a private individual; avoiding advocacy on matters that will come before the council; promptly correcting factual errors; and limiting publication of private personnel or investigatory data on social platforms. Councilors and staff discussed issuing city email accounts for commissioners to ease records searches and scheduling a joint January training for commissions on open-meeting, data-practice and social-media issues.
Next steps: staff will explore issuing city email accounts for commissioners and schedule a joint training session in January to cover data practices and social-media best practices.
