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Blackout in the Name of Sunshine: When Open Government Law Stifles Civic Social Media
Abstract
Local governments, and particularly local public officials, have adopted online social networking tools en masse in an effort to communicate with constituents. As this chapter shows, the resulting information flow consists of communication from the public official to constituents, from constituents to the public official, and among constituents, but in the context of the public official's social network. This environment constitutes a “civic social network,” which operates as the new public square. Many local governments, however, are attempting to bar officials' use of civic social networks because they risk violation of open government laws, such as open meeting and open records laws. This effort to stifle valuable civic communication harms norms of transparency and accountability – the very values that open government laws should promote. These laws should be revised or reinterpreted to allow civic social networks to fulfill their promise as the new public square.
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