ANTIGO — At a meeting Monday night, Langlade County Corporation Counsel Robin Stowe gave a presentation advising county board members about social media usage.
In the presentation, Stowe advised board members to refrain from posting about county business on social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, or X.
“The internet, as we know, it’s really, truly the wild west,” Stowe said. “The regulations that need to be in place, they just haven’t caught up to the technology that we have nowadays. They simply haven’t. I don’t know when they will, but if I leave you with any thought, it’s, as you’ve accepted this role as an elected government official, using these other electronic communications platforms is a minefield for all the reasons that I covered: public records law, the defamation standards are different, your potential personal liability, you don’t speak for the county board, etc.”
Stowe said any county-related post members made technically needed to be saved in case it became the subject of an open records request.
“If you have your own page or you use someone else’s page and it has something to do with county government — that technically could be subject to a public records request where you then need that record,” he said. “You’re going to need kind of a copy of that posting and to maintain a copy of that posting. Someone needs to do that.”
Stowe warned the group that as public officials, they could potentially be “endlessly criticized” on social media, and simply needed to “grow a thick skin.”
“If someone’s got that social media post about one of you out there, I know you’re going to be compelled, ‘I want to get in there and I want to respond to that,’ but this war of words that happens on social media, when you’re going to say something that is offensive or demeaning to that private citizen, their [defamation] standard is very low,” Stowe said. “When you’re engaging in this social media post, they’re saying something very demeaning and offensive to you, again, that bar is very high. But on the other side, when they’re a private citizen making this post with their first amendment rights, and you’re responding in kind to that war of words, you may have some personal liability for a defamation claim. I know you’re saying, ‘Oh, that’s not fair.’ That’s the way it works.”
Stowe said if comments members made while engaged in a war of words on social media violated the code of conduct for county officials, the county would not necessarily defend them, and the board members themselves might become personally liable.
“We cannot engage in any conduct that a reasonable person would deem offensive,” Stowe said. “And as I’ve mentioned before, we’ve been down this road before with county board supervisors that their online presence will be making statements that are offensive…so what does the county do? We’re in a position now to protect the organization where we have to build that wall between the board and that supervisor, and even sometimes have to get into the role of even sanctioning, because that person continues and then continues,” Stowe said. “Well now, to further build that wall, we say, ‘We have a policy. We’re going to have to call a foul on our own team member, and we’re going to have sanction that person, and we’re going to have to remove them from committees, and maybe even remove that person from county board.’”
Stowe said the best practice for any public official is to simply avoid mention of any county business on social media platforms.
“We’re not going to change anybody’s hearts and minds on social media,” Stowe said. “The best thing we can do, if you see a post or you’re seeing a sort of discussion with a whole lot of disinformation, the best thing we can do is just redirect the public to come to our meetings, read our minutes, [and tell them,] ‘This is the official record of your government in action.’ There’s a lot of rumors and innuendo and hearsay and misinformation out there on social media. So it’s a minefield.”
Most Popular
Comments / 0