Public records requests

Social media records for public records requests.

When a request names your social media, the record should already be waiting. Search your connected accounts by date, channel and keyword, review posts with their comments and replies, and export the responsive set. What gets released stays your decision.

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The response workflow

From request received to records produced.

The clock starts the moment the request lands. Three steps, one archive: no screenshot hunts, no asking the platform, no discovering too late that a post was deleted.

Step 1 · Find

Search the archive the way the request is worded.

Requests arrive as dates, topics and account names. Search your connected accounts the same way: set the date range, pick the channels and authors, then narrow by keyword until the candidate set matches the scope of the request.

  • Date-range filters that match the request window
  • Channel and author filters across your connected accounts
  • Keyword search across posts, comments and replies
Two people working through records on laptops
Step 2 · Review

Review posts with their comments and replies.

A post on its own is half the story. Brolly keeps supported posts together with their comments and replies, and keeps captured edits and deletions from connected accounts, so reviewers see the conversation the requester is asking about, including versions that no longer appear on the platform.

  • Conversation context kept with every captured record
  • Edited and deleted content included where captured, with timestamps
  • Review before release: exemption and redaction decisions stay with you
Two colleagues reviewing a records request together at a meeting table
Step 3 · Produce

Export a package built for scrutiny.

Export the responsive set with its available metadata, digital checksums and audit history, in formats designed to support evidentiary review. Brolly does not decide exemptions, redactions or release; it hands your reviewers a set they can stand behind.

  • PDF, CSV, HTML and JSON export formats
  • Digital checksums on exports; metadata and audit history on records
  • Cross-team handoff: records finds, communications confirms, legal clears
A team walking through a production plan at a whiteboard
Built for review

Why the production holds up.

Requesters and reviewers ask questions a screenshot cannot answer. The archive can.

Context

The conversation stays whole

Posts are kept with their comments and replies, so a produced record shows the exchange the requester asked about, not an isolated message stripped of what people said back.

Versions

Edits and deletions included

Supported edits and deletions from connected accounts are captured with timestamps, so content that changed after publishing can still be reviewed and, where responsive, produced.

Integrity

Metadata and checksums

Records keep their available metadata and audit history, and exports carry digital checksums, so a reviewer can verify that the package they received matches the export that was made.

Your call

Review and release are yours

Brolly narrows the responsive set and gives reviewers context. Exemptions, redactions and the decision to release remain your responsibility, made under your state’s law with counsel.

Keep going

The rest of the records picture.

Responding to requests is one obligation. Here is how it connects to the others.

The product

The social media archive

How capture works: supported posts, comments, edits and deletions from connected accounts, preserved in near-real time with search and export built in.

Explore the archive
Sibling solution

Social media recordkeeping

Requests are the moment of truth; retention is the everyday obligation. How agencies keep social media records under their schedules, long before anyone asks.

See recordkeeping
Your state

State-by-state requirements

Statutes, response expectations and oversight bodies vary by state. Our government hub covers all 50, with a dedicated guide for each.

Find your state’s requirements

Producing for requests is one part of official channel governance: coverage, record, access and activity evidence across the channels your organization owns.

Straight answers

Asked by records officers with a deadline.

Do deleted posts and comments count as public records?
Often, yes. Most state laws look at what content documents, not whether it is still live on the platform, so a post that was edited or deleted after publishing can still be responsive. Brolly keeps the captured versions of supported posts, comments, edits and deletions from your connected accounts, so you can review and produce them even after they disappear from the page. What counts as a record in your jurisdiction is defined by your state’s law and your retention schedules.
How fast can we produce responsive records?
Searching is the fast part: filter the archive by date range, channel, author and keyword and you have a candidate set in minutes instead of days of screenshot hunting. The pace of the full response is set by your review, since exemption and redaction decisions are yours, and by your state’s response requirements, which vary. Our 50-state government guides cover the rules that apply to you.
Who decides what is exempt or gets redacted?
You do. Brolly helps you find and review the responsive set; it does not decide exemptions, apply redactions or release records. Those judgments stay with your records officer and counsel, under your state’s law. Exports keep the surrounding context, including comments and edit history, so reviewers make those calls with the whole record in front of them.
What does an export include?
The responsive records with their available metadata, conversation context (posts together with their comments and replies), captured edit and deletion history, and digital checksums, plus an audit history of the export itself. Exports come in PDF, CSV, HTML and JSON and are designed to support evidentiary review.
Is this the same thing as FOIA?
FOIA is the federal statute and applies to federal agencies. State and local requests run under your state’s public records or open records law, which has its own scope, process and terminology. The workflow is the same either way: find the responsive records, review them, export the production. For state and local specifics, start with our 50-state guides on the government hub.

Be ready before the request arrives.

Connect your accounts in minutes, and the next request starts with a search instead of a scramble.

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