Editorial: Social media blurs public and private communication

Is a private Facebook page a public record?

It’s a complicated question — so complicated that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is being asked to decide.

The line between public and private isn’t as black and white as it might seem. Public officials are also private individuals. Sometimes the two sides bleed into each other while doing the job or making a statement.

This week, Thomas Cagle of Crawford County brought his case to a Pittsburgh courtroom for the justices to hear arguments. At issue, conversations he believed were being conducted on Facebook between school board members about Penncrest School District issues.

He did what people are allowed to do when they want more information. He filed an open-records request for the posts. It was declined on the idea that the board members’ private accounts are not public records.

That’s definitely an argument. An open-records request for a board member’s official emails could be honored, but it’s unlikely private emails would be provided without a court order and a valid reason.

But a counterargument exists. An elected official is still an elected official outside of meetings. Facebook is a public forum, and for many people, it is used as an open communication tool. It is as likely to be used as an open letter to everyone in the community as it is a private aside to an individual.

People also often maintain public and private social media accounts but can push messaging out from both to maximize the audience. It’s smart from a marketing standpoint but blurs lines when it comes to public records.

And all of that is just assuming any confusion is innocent. There is also the real possibility of actions being taken privately to disingenuously distance oneself from statements under the color of privacy — or deliberately doing so to skirt the Sunshine Law.

“Social media has become a ubiquitous form of communication, and as public officials use it to communicate about public business, the resulting records must be accessible to the people they serve,” said Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association.

The law needs to make the lines bold and conspicuous so that they cannot be ignored or misconstrued. Either private accounts can be subject to open-records laws when they are used in a de facto public manner, or using the accounts in that way must be unacceptable and come with consequences.

Social media is not going away, so brighter guidelines need to be drawn.