Every day, counties, municipalities (cities, towns, villages), and special districts across Georgia communicate with the public on social media. Every comment, reply, reaction, and post could be a public record. Are you confident you could produce them tomorrow if asked?
To stay compliant, public agencies in Georgia must understand the key requirements for handling social media records under state law.
Failing to capture social media records can expose counties, municipalities, and special districts to penalties, lawsuits, negative media attention, and, most damaging of all, the loss of public trust.
Manual methods like screenshots aren’t enough; they miss critical details such as metadata, timestamps, edits, and deletions.
That’s why local government entities across the country are turning to Brolly. Purpose-built for government, Brolly automatically captures every interaction, applies secure retention, and makes records export-ready, keeping you compliant while safeguarding your reputation.
Brolly goes beyond basic archiving – giving counties a complete, compliant, and proactive solution that captures every record, prevents risks, and delivers insights to strengthen community trust.
Brolly ensures every social media interaction – posts, comments, edits, deletions, and attachments – is automatically captured. With complete metadata, timestamps, and digital checksums preserving the chain of custody, counties, municipalities, and special districts can fulfil requests in minutes through one-click exports to PDF, CSV/JSON, and media files.
Open government laws across the United States demand openness and accountability from public agencies. Because today’s public discussions often take place on social media, Brolly provides the defensible archive local governments and districts need to uphold transparency, protect community trust, and demonstrate compliance with the law.
Brolly automatically records every post, comment, edit, deletion and reaction – complete with metadata and timestamps. Nothing slips through the cracks, ensuring your county’s social media records are accurate, complete, and defensible.
Every day your county communicates with the community on social media, creating public records. Are you confident you could produce them tomorrow if asked?
With Brolly, counties can:
Comply with public records and open meetings laws
Protect against reputational and legal risks
Deliver faster, more efficient public service
Counties, cities, and districts face increasing legal discovery, audit reviews, and public scrutiny. Brolly provides a complete, immutable record of social media activity – with full metadata, edit/delete history, and chain-of-custody logs.
This ensures your county can confidently respond to audits, litigation, or appeals with defensible evidence that stands up in court or under investigation.
Brolly doesn’t just archive records – it actively protects your county by detecting harassment, hate speech, threats, and misinformation in real time. Identify potential safety risks to staff, officials, and residents, and take proactive steps to safeguard your community and reputation.
Turn community conversation into actionable intelligence. With Brolly, you can track recurring concerns, measure positive engagement and outreach effectiveness, and give leaders real-time dashboards that support smarter, data-driven decisions.
The Georgia Open Records Act (O.C.G.A. §§ 50-18-70 to 76) defines social media content as part of the public record. Posts, comments, direct messages, edits, and even metadata fall under its scope. Agencies are legally required to provide access to these records within three business days, creating an ongoing obligation to capture and retain digital communications accurately.
The Georgia Attorney General’s Open Government Guide offers practical instructions for state and local agencies. It explains how records requests should be managed, outlines exemptions that may apply, and clarifies responsibilities around open meetings and public records. This guide serves as the definitive reference point for public officials seeking to stay compliant and avoid missteps.
The Cobb County Sheriff’s Office lawsuit illustrates the risks of non-compliance. When the sheriff’s office blocked citizens on Facebook, the court found it violated both the First Amendment and public records laws. The county paid damages and legal fees, showing how quickly poor social media practices can escalate into costly legal battles and reputational harm.
Brolly’s security features are engineered to meet rigorous compliance and data protection standards.
✅ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certified Information Security Management System
✅Trust & Security Centre
✅ End-to-end encryption (in transit & at rest)
When it comes to public records compliance and community protection, manual methods and generic tools fall short. Here’s how Brolly gives counties the certainty, speed, and security they need.
Book a 20-minute call to learn how Brolly provides social media archiving that protects your records, ensures compliance with recordkeeping and data privacy laws, and can save your county, municipality, or special district social media and records management teams hours of effort each week.
Learn about Brolly
State records quick reference
A quick reference for Georgia counties, municipalities and special districts handling official social media under the Georgia Open Records Act.
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.
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.
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.
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.
General information only, not legal advice. Confirm current requirements with your records officer or legal counsel.
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