Board of Ethics lays down rules of the road for navigating social media

The Chicago Board of Ethics on Tuesday laid down rules of the road for aldermen seeking to navigate social media.

The complex, seven-page ruling could leave aldermen seeking strict guidelines on where and how to draw the lines between their official, political and personal Facebook pages, Twitter and Instagram accounts and websites more confused than ever.

The advisory opinion states that "political/campaign" websites and social media accounts may include content regarding city or ward business.

But only if they are "not funded or maintained with city resources," and do not "take on the character of an official city website or page, such as including the city seal or links to the city's website or city services in such a manner as users could reasonably think it is a city page."

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