Social Media

Social Media tools are a new way for businesses to increase productivity, encourage collaboration, and spur innovation – all at no cost. However, prior to 2009, the government generally could not use social media tools for mission-related purposes, such as public outreach, citizen engagement, personnel recruitment, training, and idea generation. This was because Web 2.0 providers as a general matter required potential users, before opening an account, to agree to the company's standard Terms of Service (TOS), which contained provisions federal agencies by law could not agree to.

In order to make social media sites Federal “friendly,” GSA has worked with over 30 providers to amend their standard TOS for federal users eliminating those problems – thus enabling the Federal Government to use these free tools the same way private industry can.

Agencies are not required to use these Amended Terms of Service Agreements (they are free to negotiate their own Amended TOS if they wish). GSA attempted to resolve the major legal issues of the sign-up process, clarify expectations, and set the stage for productive use of these services. However, all agencies must still comply with laws and regulations on security, privacy, accessibility, records retention, ethical use, and other specific agency policies and requirements when they use the tools.

GSA recommends each agency to seek the advice of their respective agency counsel on whether the TOS is legally appropriate for use by your agency

For a full list of FAQ’s about the Social Media tools available on Apps.gov, visit the GSA forums website.