Public Records Laws and Social Media Retention in Texas

Texas Public Records Laws Compliance

Texas Senate Bill 944 is an amendment to the Texas Public Information Act (PIA) and defines methods for adhering to Texas public records laws and expanding government transparency, including how social media communication should be recorded and archived.

Click here to learn more about Texas Senate Bill 944

Texas Public Information Act & Social Media

The Texas Public Information Act was modernized in 2013 to explicitly include internet postings and other electronic communications with Senate Bill 1368. This bill causes social media content to fall under Texas public records laws.

View Texas Law Text P

Texas Open Government Act/SB 1368: Public Information

(c)The general forms in which the media containing public information exist include a book, paper, letter, document,e-mail, internet posting, text message, instant message, other electronic communication, printout, photograph, film, tape, microfiche, microfilm, photostat, sound recording, map, and drawing and a voice, data, or video representation held in computer memory.

Social Media Records Guidelines from the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR)

The DIR clarifies the retention requirements for social media records in Texas in its Social Media Resource Guide and offers great strategies for getting started with social media in your agency.

View the DIR Social Media guidelines P

4. Records Retention

Content posted by the agency or the public on an agency’s social media website is a state record (Government Code, Section 441.180(11)), and is subject to State Records Retention requirements in Government Code Chapter 441, Subchapter L, 441.180-205.

To manage compliance, agencies may consider common exceptions to State Records Retention Requirements in developing social media content strategy.

Texas Social Media Records Management in Practice

Austin is the first city in the country to offer a completely Open Archive that is accessible to the public. The City of Dallas offers a great example of a comprehensive social media policy that recognizes social media posts are subject to public disclosure laws.

View the Dallas Social Media Policy P

City of Dallas Administrative Directive on Social Media

5.2 The PIO or designee will:

Manage Open Records Requests in cooperation with all departments to ensure that responses to such requests include any responsive Content on City Social Media sites

Resource Links

Texas Open Government Act Chapter 552: Public Information

Source: Texas State Legislature

DIR Social Media Resource Guide

Source: DIR

Texas State Libraries Records Management Training

Source: Texas State Libraries

Public Information Handbook 2018

Source: Office of the Attorney General

Texas Social Media Policy Template

Source: ArchiveSocial

Automate your Social Media Records Retention

Learn how you can preserve complete social media records automatically to maintain public records compliance in Texas. Download the social media archiving overview.

Download the Overview "

Hear from our Customers

ArchiveSocial in Texas

Hear from one of the many cities, counties, and agencies that are meeting public record law requirements using ArchiveSocial.

We were interested in complying with new Public Information Act provisions. We found, after fairly extensive research, that ArchiveSocial offers a reasonably-priced model that requires no proactive steps on our part. We basically turned it on and let it run.

Dinah Massie

Houston Transtar

ArchiveSocial has made the process of being in compliance with SB 944 painless and easy. Your system is doing what you said it would do and it is easy to navigate and export from. Your staff is amazing and always helps. Thanks for being professional and taking time to always answer my questions.

Sgt. Wallace Jones

Potter County Sheriff's Office, TX

Social Media Record Retention Legal News in Texas

Read about Texas cases and precedents involving social media and public record retention.

Legal gavel on laptop computer with social media icons overlayed

Texas A&M settles lawsuit with PETA over social media records

PETA filed a public records request for the records of A&M’s social media filters to see if they were censoring posts and comments for keywords like “dogs”, “PETA”, and “abuse”. PETA argued that these constituted records under the Texas Public Information Act. Texas A&M paid $75,000 to settle the lawsuit.

Source: USnews.com, "Texas A&M Settles Lawsuit Claiming School Hid Facebook Posts", February 2020

Texas Assistant Attorney General states social media records are public records after the City of Seabrook received a records request for social media comments

They City received a records requests for all comments on the city police department’s social media pages. The City argued that information was not subject to the Public Information Act. However, when it appealed to the Attorney General, the Assistant Attorney General responded by stating that the comments – and all content created on social media – is subject to public records laws.

Source: Attorney General of Texas, October 2016