REMARKS
Council member's concerns about political activity on government social media accounts
0:52:23
ยท
3 min
Council Member Williams expresses her concerns about the use of official government social media accounts for potentially political exchanges with council members. She discusses the gray areas in determining political activity on these accounts.
- Williams argues that using official government accounts for exchanges with council members is problematic
- She highlights the dichotomy between government and political roles for council members
- The discussion touches on the complexity of determining what constitutes political activity on government social media accounts
- Commissioner Strauber acknowledges the gray area and explains why the report didn't reach a definitive conclusion on certain tweets
Nantasha M. Williams
0:52:23
I think it's interesting that the report, that that you reached no conclusion on whether or not the tweets made by members of NYP's executive staff on official city accounts were, quote, unquote, political activity.
0:52:36
Overall, I think my issue, is that, you know, if if Chief Shell had, like, a personal x account and he made those tweets, whatever.
0:52:47
It's your personal account.
0:52:49
My personal issue with it is the fact that it's, like, an official, like, government account being used to go back and forth with a individual council member, I feel, is a little egregious, because council members themselves have, you know, we we have dichotomy, right, where we, you know, it's it's we we're government actors, but then by nature, we're also, like, political actors, and so sometimes the line is a little blurred.
0:53:21
Whereas, like, someone who has a government job using a government account, I think there's it feels a little gray, around the usage of the the government account.
0:53:35
Like, again, do whatever you wanna do on your personal account.
0:53:39
Have nothing like whatever free speech.
0:53:41
Do what you gotta do, but it's the usage of a government account to engage in that exchange is the thing for me that felt, a little egregious.
0:53:53
But, I mean, I guess I would say, in your view, do you think these these tweets accomplish a city purpose, or a non city purpose?
0:54:02
Why?
0:54:03
And, you know, did Chief Shoe agree with this when the investigators asked him about his purpose?
Jocelyn Strauber
0:54:12
So so let me start by saying I I totally agree with you that this is a gray area.
0:54:16
And that's why what the report finds and there there are really only 2 tweets that we thought raised the question of whether there was use of a government social media account to engage in political activity, and those were 2 tweets that related to voting.
0:54:31
And while there was no specific candidate mentioned, there's no pending election, primary or otherwise, the statement vote the change you seek raised a question as to whether that was political activity or not.
0:54:47
We didn't resolve that question because it is a gray area.
0:54:50
It's a complex issue, which is which is why in this case, we did not take a position on the law.
0:54:56
Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't.
0:54:58
We didn't hear for for just the reason you said that that it is a gray area.
0:55:04
You know, I think as I recall from, you know, the interview related memos that I looked at, the the department's view, at least at that time was that that was not political activity because there was no pending election.
0:55:20
There was no urging to vote for a particular candidate.
0:55:24
You know, whether That sounds like an like a sounds like, their internal lawyers,
Nantasha M. Williams
0:55:29
like, came up with a rationale.
Jocelyn Strauber
0:55:31
But that Right.
0:55:32
I mean, we're not endorsing that's part of the we're not endorsing any particular, you know, conclusion on that.
0:55:38
We we sort of put the issue out there, so that members of the public and and any other body that might wanna look into it has the facts that we found.
Gale A. Brewer
0:55:50
Council member Salaam, you have questions?
0:55:57
Good morning.
0:55:58
Good morning.