Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Public Records topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Select Board defers social media policy vote after concerns about comments, recordkeeping
Summary
The board reviewed a draft social media policy that would archive posts as public records, restrict commenting where possible and require town posts to link to the website; members deferred a vote after disagreement about Facebook comment moderation and data retention.
Mount Vernon — The Select Board reviewed a draft social media policy, agreed on public-record archiving and platform designation, but deferred final approval after members expressed differing views about comment moderation on platforms such as Facebook.
The draft, prepared with input from MMA, would have the select board designate which platforms the town uses, treat posts as public records to be archived, and generally avoid replying to comment threads (disabling comments where possible). The policy also proposes that posts link back to the town website so official, authoritative information is centralized.
Several members said YouTube posting of recorded meetings makes sense and can be retained in the town’s archive. Others raised concerns about Facebook’s inability to fully disable comments on a business page and the risk of malicious or harassing commentary. One member described seeing severe negative exchanges on a local Mount Vernon page and said that experience weighs against enabling comments on Facebook.
Outcome: The board agreed to continue using YouTube for meeting recordings and to keep working on policy language; a final vote was deferred while members investigate comment controls, archiving tools and whether a more limited rollout or filters should be used for platforms that do not allow full comment disabling.
