Agencies need better social media rules.

• Position: SOCIAL MEDIA - Government Accountability Office - Brief article

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Because federal agencies are increasingly using social media to engage with the public, better records management, privacy, and security guidelines are needed, a government watchdog agency has warned.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) examined how 23 key agencies are using social media, such as Twitter for posting news updates, YouTube for posting videos of congressional hearings, and Facebook for answering the public's questions.

All this activity poses new records management, privacy, and security challenges, and agency progress in meeting these challenges has been mixed, according to Information Week.

While many agencies have developed specific policies for using social media in light of these challenges, the GAO found that only 12--or about half--of the agencies...