U.S. senators can now more easily officially share what they want with the public via popular web services, per a new protocol rule change. The changes may also be implemented by the House of Representatives, says Technosailor's Aaron Brazell.
This should end a larger and long-running debate we've previously covered in detail, about how members of Congress should be allowed to communicate with the public using new-fangled web sites like YouTube and Twitter.
In case you're not following, here's a quick recap the debate as it has unfolded over this past summer: First, a Democrat House member proposed some new rules that aimed to make it clear when a House member was communicating in an official capacity on the web. Some Republican House members interpreted the proposal to mean that their activity on Twitter and other sites would be greatly hindered. They believed they would have to do things like provide an official disclosure about their House affiliation as part of, say, a tweet. If most of the 140 characters in a given tweet had to be the text of a disclosure, how could one meaningfully use Twitter? Democrats came back saying they'd been misunderstood. The debate then, as far as I've been following it, got submerged in committee meetings.
The Senate has since worked out some new rules, as covered by Congress Daily (subscription only):
As part of the change, Rules Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein and ranking member Robert Bennett included some exceptions. A member, committee or office may separately maintain Web sites or post material on third-party platforms as long as they abide by guidelines. The Rules Committee plans to offer a “non exhaustive list” of approved third-party sites. Those sites must agree to disclose when content is maintained by a Senate office and is banned from adding commercial or political material or links to an office-maintained page.
Other rules include restrictions on what data politicians can collect about their users.