As with text messages, social media posts and messages are subject to the same analysis as more traditional written records. See Op. Tex. Att’y Gen. OR 2016-23161 (2016). They are subject to disclosure under the Act to the extent they were written, produced, collected, or assembled in connection with official business. Id.
Considering a “request for all comments made on social media pages of the city’s police department” in an informal letter ruling, the Attorney General noted that the Act can “encompass information that a governmental body does not physically possess,” and that any information “written, produced, collected, assembled, or maintained by a third party . . . may be subject to disclosure under the Act if a governmental body owns, has a right of access, or spends or contributes public money for the purpose of writing, producing, collecting, assembling, or maintaining the information.” Id. Because the requested social media content was used “to advance the goals” of the governmental body, and the body actively managed the content, the information was subject to the Act. See id.
Conversely, where requested information “consists of personal social media messages” sent during an employee’s “personal time,” said information has not been written produced, collected, assembled, or maintained in connection with transaction of official business, and is likely not subject to disclosure. See Op. Tex. Att’y Gen. OR 2015-14798.
Access may also depend on the nature of the specific social media platform being used. In one informal letter ruling, the Attorney General specifically highlighted provisions of Facebook’s “Terms of Service Agreement,” which provided: “You [the user] own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings.” Op. Tex. Att’y Gen. OR 2016-23161 (2016). The fact that the governmental body owned the information posted on its Facebook account, and had the right to manage and control it, weighed in favor of considering it public information. See id.