Can This Congress Tweet?

There has been some controversy lately about what a letter from Rep. Capuano of the Franking Committee means for House members’ Web presence. The Franking Committee, which in part regulates members’ communications so they don’t appear to endorse a particular product, service or ideology, are looking into how members should be able to use the Internet, and have sent a letter to the Committee on House Administration with a few recommendations.

Some are claiming that these recommendations would prohibit House members from posting to any unapproved website, and would need to have each post individually approved. Our friends at the Sunlight Foundation have started a reasonable campaign to ensure that Members can use new social media– like Twitter (home of the ‘tweet’). Capuano has responded, saying that the critics have it all wrong, and that the recommendations are an effort to open up the rules to let Members use third-party services for video (i.e. hosting official videos on YouTube, then embedding them on their house.gov page). Speaker Pelosi has also weighed in, reminding those who are concerned that she has a notable presence on social networks and uses new web services– and that they want to make that more common.

It’s good that the Franking Committee is looking at the ways members can use the Internet. The same way that the public is discovering new ways to communicate with each other and breaking down barriers, legislators can use these new services to transparency’s advantage. But Franking rules exist for a reason, and Congress members are held to a higher standard- their messages shouldn’t lead to the commercialization of the Congress and they need to make sure their material stays ADA compliant in ways that YouTube doesn’t make easy.

I hope that they see the possible uses for sites like Twitter and YouTube. We’ve seen how the new Web services can be used in elections, and maybe soon we’ll see them get used in the legislative process. The fact that there is confusion about existing rules and the proposed recommendations show that some work still needs to be done, but it clearly is not as bad as the most ardent critics suggest. Hopefully this dialog on Congressional Internet use will continue, and we can work out some guidelines on how to help members use the Internet- to everyone’s advantage.