Twitter and Government Transparency

Social networking technologies are creating potential challenges for government transparency.

As more agency employees use Twitter, Facebook and similar external sites, some state and local IT officials are asking whether those communications should be archived for public viewing. The problem is that agencies don't know how to archive communications made on third-party social networks. For now, CIOs are delaying this puzzler because the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) has no mandates related to them.

But Melinda Catapano, city records manager for Grand Junction (CO), who also is a lawyer, predicts that courts will eventually force agencies to provide this data. Examining the potential risks of this issue could help CIOs discern the appropriate priority level for solving it.