What happened with the official social media accounts of the federal employees during the transition period from the Obama Administration to the Trump Administration?
On October 31 2016 the White House anticipating a departure in large numbers (if not massive) of the federal employees before and after the newly sworn-in Trump administration team issued a Memorandum for Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies (P 2016_12_010 of December 01 2016) with guidance on the disposition of official social media accounts.
A first interesting fact is that the Memorandum although issued before the November 8 2016 elections was distributed to the federal departments and agencies after the election results.
The Memorandum details a disposition plan of the Executive Office of the President (EOP) for its official accounts leaving to the other federal agencies the initiative in developing their own disposition plans consistent with this guidance."
The Memorandum states that social media accounts that were (1) created using federal government resources (including the official time of federal employees) (2) maintained using federal government resources and (3) used to communicate about the work of the Obama Administration are the property of the federal government due to the investment of official resources including the time and effort of federal employees into such accounts.
For example the White House has announced that the Twitter handle @POTUS will be retained for use by the next president." Other government departments are charged with implementing policies consistent with the aforementioned guidance and accordingly will take steps to retain as government property these types of accounts. They may either continue to use them for official communications or officially retire them" to their bureaus of administrations records service centers.
Consequently the White House Memorandum directs that employees may not therefore retain official accounts in a personal capacity" upon departure and official accounts must instead either remain with the current office" for continued use by the next administration or be transferred to NARA National Archives and Records Administration note added for historical preservation" (emphasis added) or otherwise in accordance with agency record disposition plans.
The Memorandum continues by pointing out that given these options EOP plans to distinguish between institutional and individual accounts" and will proceed as follows:
(1) To the extent possible emphasis added EOP will keep institutional accounts those associated with an agency component (e.g. @WhiteHouse) or with an institutional position (e.g. @POTUS) at EOP for use by the next Administration."
However EOP is providing for two narrow exceptions" to this plan: first EOP will transfer institutional accounts that would be of minimal value to the next Administration e.g. because the social media platform is no longer widely used to NARA emphasis added; second for accounts associated with an initiative for which EOP has an agency partner (e.g. Lets Move) EOP will transfer the accounts to the relevant agency partner" emphasis added. What EOP means by accounts of minimal value to the next Administration" is everybodys guess.
(2) To the extent possible emphasis added EOP will transfer individual accounts those associated with a particular Administration employee (…) to NARA to be preserved within each platform."
An example of a particular Administration employee" may include for instance: @VJarrett11 or @LLynch22.
(3) EOT will export a copy of all content on its official accounts to NARAs electronic archiving system consistent with the requirements of the Presidential Records Act and the Federal Records Act."
As for the other federal agencies they need not follow EOPs disposition plan but should develop their own plans consistent with the guidance in this memorandum and with applicable records requirements."
The White House guidance does not directly address the cases where social media accounts were originally personal accounts created by senior officials or spokespersons for personal use prior to assuming their position but were later used for official purposes. The White House memorandum does suggest that such accounts should not be retained by individuals upon their departure from the department or agency if the account benefited substantially from the investment of official resources.
Anyhow some departments have specific policy guidance for such repurposed accounts. According to it senior officials or official spokespersons leaving the departments who wish to take with them a personal social media account that has been used for official purposes must seek a case-by-case review to determine if an exception to the general requirement of their department retention of the account should be made based on the individual facts of the situation.
In addition to the extent such accounts contain official communications those communications must be retained under the guidance on federal records preservation; see 5 FAM 794(a)(8) and (9).
Employees who have been using personal social media accounts to communicate in their official capacity and the accounts were created before employees assumed their government positions and who wish to retain the accounts after their departure can send requests for review by December 7 2016.
All other departing holders of social media accounts that have been used for official communications can reach out for assistance retiring the accounts in accordance with records management policies and practices. Employees who need assistance in transferring the accounts to their successors in function or position are encouraged to contact their bureau executive offices.
In conclusion the Memorandum offers guidance for a smooth" transition in order to avoid situations like Hillarys (see VIDEO here) and her many thousands of e-mails wiped with the cloth."
NOTE - A version of the article was published previously in MEDIUM.
Tiberiu Dianu has published several books and a host of articles in law politics and post-communist societies. He currently lives and works in Washington DC and can be followed on MEDIUM.
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What happened with the official social media accounts of the federal employees during the transition period from the Obama Administration to the Trump Administration?
On October 31 2016 the White House anticipating a departure in large numbers (if not massive) of the federal employees before and after the newly sworn-in Trump administration team issued a Memorandum for Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies (P 2016_12_010 of December 01 2016) with guidance on the disposition of official social media accounts.
A first interesting fact is that the Memorandum although issued before the November 8 2016 elections was distributed to the federal departments and agencies after the election results.
The Memorandum details a disposition plan of the Executive Office of the President (EOP) for its official accounts leaving to the other federal agencies the initiative in developing their own disposition plans consistent with this guidance."
The Memorandum states that social media accounts that were (1) created using federal government resources (including the official time of federal employees) (2) maintained using federal government resources and (3) used to communicate about the work of the Obama Administration are the property of the federal government due to the investment of official resources including the time and effort of federal employees into such accounts.
For example the White House has announced that the Twitter handle @POTUS will be retained for use by the next president." Other government departments are charged with implementing policies consistent with the aforementioned guidance and accordingly will take steps to retain as government property these types of accounts. They may either continue to use them for official communications or officially retire them" to their bureaus of administrations records service centers.
Consequently the White House Memorandum directs that employees may not therefore retain official accounts in a personal capacity" upon departure and official accounts must instead either remain with the current office" for continued use by the next administration or be transferred to NARA National Archives and Records Administration note added for historical preservation" (emphasis added) or otherwise in accordance with agency record disposition plans.
The Memorandum continues by pointing out that given these options EOP plans to distinguish between institutional and individual accounts" and will proceed as follows:
(1) To the extent possible emphasis added EOP will keep institutional accounts those associated with an agency component (e.g. @WhiteHouse) or with an institutional position (e.g. @POTUS) at EOP for use by the next Administration."
However EOP is providing for two narrow exceptions" to this plan: first EOP will transfer institutional accounts that would be of minimal value to the next Administration e.g. because the social media platform is no longer widely used to NARA emphasis added; second for accounts associated with an initiative for which EOP has an agency partner (e.g. Lets Move) EOP will transfer the accounts to the relevant agency partner" emphasis added. What EOP means by accounts of minimal value to the next Administration" is everybodys guess.
(2) To the extent possible emphasis added EOP will transfer individual accounts those associated with a particular Administration employee (…) to NARA to be preserved within each platform."
An example of a particular Administration employee" may include for instance: @VJarrett11 or @LLynch22.
(3) EOT will export a copy of all content on its official accounts to NARAs electronic archiving system consistent with the requirements of the Presidential Records Act and the Federal Records Act."
As for the other federal agencies they need not follow EOPs disposition plan but should develop their own plans consistent with the guidance in this memorandum and with applicable records requirements."
The White House guidance does not directly address the cases where social media accounts were originally personal accounts created by senior officials or spokespersons for personal use prior to assuming their position but were later used for official purposes. The White House memorandum does suggest that such accounts should not be retained by individuals upon their departure from the department or agency if the account benefited substantially from the investment of official resources.
Anyhow some departments have specific policy guidance for such repurposed accounts. According to it senior officials or official spokespersons leaving the departments who wish to take with them a personal social media account that has been used for official purposes must seek a case-by-case review to determine if an exception to the general requirement of their department retention of the account should be made based on the individual facts of the situation.
In addition to the extent such accounts contain official communications those communications must be retained under the guidance on federal records preservation; see 5 FAM 794(a)(8) and (9).
Employees who have been using personal social media accounts to communicate in their official capacity and the accounts were created before employees assumed their government positions and who wish to retain the accounts after their departure can send requests for review by December 7 2016.
All other departing holders of social media accounts that have been used for official communications can reach out for assistance retiring the accounts in accordance with records management policies and practices. Employees who need assistance in transferring the accounts to their successors in function or position are encouraged to contact their bureau executive offices.
In conclusion the Memorandum offers guidance for a smooth" transition in order to avoid situations like Hillarys (see VIDEO here) and her many thousands of e-mails wiped with the cloth."
NOTE - A version of the article was published previously in MEDIUM.
Tiberiu Dianu has published several books and a host of articles in law politics and post-communist societies. He currently lives and works in Washington DC and can be followed on MEDIUM.
*****