Citing concerns about legal liability and other factors, Mundelein officials are forbidding people from commenting on the village’s official Facebook page as part of a new social media policy.
The new policy also recommends Mundelein’s elected officials not use their political titles on personal social media profiles to avoid making posts that could been seen as official village positions or endorsements.
Likewise, elected officials are advised to avoid answering questions about village issues in community Facebook groups. They’re also being cautioned about posting unofficial summaries of board meetings on social media — a habit of Mayor Robin Meier’s when she was a trustee.
Governmental representatives are bound by the First Amendment’s free speech protections on social media and in other communication forums. That limits their ability to delete social media comments or block users, attorney Ruth Schlossberg said during a public review of the policy Monday night.
“If you open it up to comments, you’ve created a forum,” Schlossberg said. “You can put some limits on the forum, but once you’ve opened it up to public comment, you have to follow First Amendment guidelines.”
Any regulation of posts — even ones containing spam or profanity — will be viewed by the public as censorship, Schlossberg said.
“And when I say ‘the public,’ I mean the keyboard warriors,” she added.
If comments are allowed without moderation, the village’s social media pages would be filled with false information and misrepresentations that would dilute the intended messages, Schlossberg said.
“It starts to get in the way of your own communication,” she said.
There are other issues, too. It’s unrealistic to think village staffers could monitor and moderate social media discussions around the clock, Schlossberg said — and not monitoring online conversations, especially over weekends, could be problematic.
“Things can take on a life of their own on social media,” Schlossberg said. “We all know what happens.”
Schlossberg also noted that allowing public comments on the village social media pages makes them subject to the Open Meetings Act, the Freedom of Information Act and the Local Records Act. The village doesn’t have the software needed to properly fulfill Freedom of Information Act requests for Facebook posts, Village Administrator Eric Guenther said.
The ban on public comments seemed to trouble some trustees. If board members want to let people comment on official village Facebook posts, Guenther said his staff will investigate what’s needed to make that possible.
The board approved the social media policy by a 4-0 vote. Trustees Erich Schwenk and Jennifer Grieco were absent.
The full policy is available for public review at mundelein.org, among the paperwork for Monday’s meetings.
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