WWillowdale City Council
4281.2k
Social media archiving for Georgia counties, cities & agencies
Georgia: respond promptly — and within 3 business days.
Every comment, reply, reaction and post your agency touches could be a public record under the Georgia Open Records Act. Brolly keeps the record ready before the request arrives.
CountiesCitiesSchool districtsUtility districts
The Deadline
A request lands Monday morning.
What happens next?
Manual methods like screenshots miss metadata, timestamps, edits and deletions — and scrambling to pull posts from multiple platforms manually is not a process that fits inside a 3-business-day window.
1Request inA citizen asks for every post and comment about a recent decision — including anything deleted.
2ScopingWhich accounts? Which platforms? Which date range? The inventory alone takes a day.
3DueThe statutory window closes. Silence or indefinite delay is itself a violation.
That's 3 business days. Not "when we get around to it." With Brolly, the searching and compiling become one afternoon.
The Law
Why compliance matters in Georgia.
Social media content created or received in the course of official business can be a public record in Georgia. Here is what defines your obligation:
Statute
Georgia Open Records Act
O.C.G.A. § 50-18-70 et seq. — defines public records broadly, extending to posts, comments, replies, reactions, edits, deletions, and shared images or videos created or received in the course of official business.
Produce responsive records within 3 business days when available; otherwise provide a description of the records and a timetable for production.
Oversight
Georgia Attorney General — Open Government
Georgia Attorney General — Open Government provides guidance on public access in Georgia and is where records disputes surface first — meaning your records practices can be scrutinized without a lawsuit ever being filed.
Transparency
Georgia Open Meetings Act
O.C.G.A. § 50-14-1 et seq. demands openness and accountability in government. Because public discussion now happens in comment threads, a defensible social media archive is part of demonstrating open-meetings compliance too.
Scope
What you must be able to produce
Everything below, with metadata and timestamps intact — including content edited or deleted after posting:
PostsComments & repliesReactions✎ Edits🗑 DeletionsImages & videoDirect messages
Manual methods vs. Brolly
What your agency needs
Screenshots & exports
Brolly
Capture comments & replies as they happen
Only what staff remember to save
Automatic, every channel, 24/7
Preserve edits & deletions
Gone before anyone notices
Full version history retained
Metadata, timestamps & checksums
Stripped by screenshots
Complete chain of custody
Respond inside the statutory window
Days of cross-platform scrambling
Saved search → export in minutes
Defensible in court or under audit
Unverifiable provenance
Immutable records + audit logs
See It In Action
The record is already there.
“A delight to use,” says one verified G2 review — this is the screen your records officer gets: search the archive, open the record, step through every captured version, and export.
One post, start to finish
One official update. Its captured history beside it.
This is how simple it is in Brolly: the original post, its edited versions and the surrounding public comments, reviewed together. Shown with fictional demonstration data.
01
Your agency publishes
A connected official account posts an emergency update as the situation develops.
02
The post is edited
Opening time and access details change — each captured version is retained with its timestamp.
03
A request arrives
Your team searches, reviews the chronology and exports it — checksums, audit logs and chain of custody attached.
Brolly Archive
Archive feed
Captured posts and conversations from connected accounts
All networksAll accountsAll dates
TCWillowdale County Emergency Info
86244.1k
EditedPWillowdale County Parks
61122.8k
LCedar Street Library
RRiverbend Fire & Rescue
HHarpeth Valley Schools
3 versions
TCWillowdale County Emergency Info
Storm shelter update: The community center opens at 8 p.m. 6 p.m. tonight. Bring ID and essential medication. Accessible entrance on Cedar Street.
♡ 86 ◯ 24 ◉ 4.1k ◉ 6.7k
Demonstration export prepared
Access control & audit logs
Clerks, counsel and records officers each get the access they need — and every export is logged.
Images, video & links
Media and link previews are captured with the post, so the record shows what residents actually saw.
Structured exports
PDF, CSV, HTML or JSON with timestamps and checksums attached — ready for a requester or counsel.
Built For
Every Georgia public body.
Counties
Sheriff's offices, clerks, mayors, highway departments, election commissions — every official account, one archive.
- County-wide multi-account capture
- PRRC-ready export workflows
- Retention aligned to county schedules
Cities & Municipalities
From metro communications teams to a single town clerk running two Facebook pages — sized and priced accordingly.
- Police, fire, parks, utilities covered
- Emergency-communication preservation
- Setup in minutes
Public Agencies
School districts, utility districts, transit authorities, housing authorities and boards — all subject to the Georgia Open Records Act.
- Board & superintendent accounts
- Public comment threads on record
- Request-ready exports on demand
The Reference Layer
Asked by clerks, PRRCs and county attorneys.
Plain-English answers with statutory citations — the details your counsel will ask about. General information, not legal advice.
Can official social media content be a public record in Georgia?
Georgia defines public records broadly to include electronic records prepared, maintained or received by a public agency in the course of public business. Official posts, comments and messages can therefore fall within the Open Records Act, subject to the content, context and any applicable exemption.
What is Georgia's three-business-day response requirement?
Georgia agencies generally must produce responsive records within three business days when they are available. If the records are not available within that period, the agency should provide a description of the records and a timetable for production. The requirement is a response and access obligation, not a universal three-day retention period.
May a Georgia agency charge for searching and producing social media records?
Georgia law permits certain reasonable charges associated with search, retrieval, redaction and production. The rules include limits and notice requirements, so records staff should consult the current Attorney General and Secretary of State guidance before estimating or applying fees.
What should Georgia agencies retain from an official social media account?
Agencies should apply the relevant state or local retention schedule to the complete record: posts, comments, messages, media, timestamps, edits, deletions and contextual metadata. A searchable archive can make later review, redaction and production more reliable than screenshots alone.
Primary source: Georgia Attorney General — Open Government · O.C.G.A. § 50-18-70 et seq.
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“Brolly: The total package for documentation and archiving.”
Brolly is a vital tool for our organization and is the total package for documentation and archiving needs.
Trust
Security your procurement team can sign off on.
Brolly is ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certified and CSA STAR registered, with controls aligned to NIST SP 800-53. Records are encrypted in transit and at rest, stored immutably, and covered by complete audit trails.
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NIST SP 800-53 alignedControls aligned for public-sector security review.
Encrypted everywhereAES-256 at rest, TLS 1.2+ in transit.
99.9% uptime SLAAvailability commitment in the service agreement.
MFA & role-based accessAccess scoped to your team, with complete audit trails.
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See how easy Public-records compliance can be.
Every day your public sector organization communicates on social media, you're creating public records. Are you confident you could produce them tomorrow?
Comply with Georgia Open Records Act requirements
Protect against reputational & legal risk
Deliver faster, more efficient public service
A 20-minute walkthrough of Brolly — no obligation. Setup takes minutes.
Consultation is free, no commitment — records officers welcome.