1. Purpose
1.1 This policy has been approved by the Director of Information and Record Services/Deputy Keeper of the National Records of Scotland. It supports both that part of the National Records of Scotland’s mission statement which says: ‘We collect, preserve and produce information about Scotland’s people and history and make it available to inform present and future generations.’ and NRS Strategy 2024 – 2029 which commits NRS to ‘Grow the nation’s archive and store digitally produced public records to preserve the past and inform the future’.
2. Scope
2.1 This policy articulates the general principles that underpin the selection of social media content to add to the national archive collection.
2.2 This policy supports the NRS Collection Development Policy. The Collection Development Policy articulates the general principles that underpin the selection of records to add to the national archive collection, and the detailed statement of our collecting and selection policies across various formats and subjects.
2.3 Section 2.3 of the NRS Collection Development Policy defines ‘record’ as ‘anything in which information is recorded in any form including electronic records…which are considered to be worthy of permanent preservation because of their evidential, administrative or historical importance’.
2.4 Social media is a key mechanism for disseminating information about public services and policies. It functions as a dynamic interface between state and citizen. Like public authority websites, NRS recognises public authority-created social media as having content of value as part of the archival record. It is part of the statutory duty and strategic collecting duties of NRS to collect, preserve and make available these records.
2.5 This policy is limited to public communications on social media platforms by organisations who deposit their records with NRS. It does not cover applications or platforms for direct messaging, such as WhatsApp. This type of record is covered by the NRS Collection Development Policy and should be managed in line with the depositing organisation’s record management practice.
3. Defining Social Media
3.1 Social media is a term used to describe web-based platforms and services which ‘facilitate the creation or sharing of information and other forms of expression via online communities and networks’.
3.2 The general business model for the majority of these platforms depends on providing free services to users and using the user-generated data for other purposes, including commerce.
3.3 Examples of social media include:
- X (formerly Twitter)
- Facebook
- TikTok
- YouTube
- Instagram
- LinkedIn
4. Challenges of Archiving Social Media Content
4.1 Content hosted on social media platforms is subject to regular change and takedown. In order to preserve this content for future reference and accountability, it must be extracted from the platform. This may be through export by the owner, via APIs provided by the platform, or through other reporting tools. Content may also be captured by web crawl.
4.2 Social Media platforms place restrictions on how hosted content can be captured, reused, stored or distributed. Restrictions are typically outlined in the Terms of Service of each platform. Creators of social media content also have their own intellectual property rights over their material. These factors are important considerations in the approach that NRS takes to the collecting, preserving and making available of archived social media content.
4.3 Through the Web Continuity Service, NRS uses web crawlers to archive the websites of organisations who deposit their records with NRS. However, web crawling faces significant challenges when archiving social media content. This is because:
- The dynamic and interactive structure of social media platforms mean that web crawlers struggle to capture content
- It is difficult to exclude content and accounts from crawls, meaning that large amounts of social media content for which NRS does not have permission to archive is likely to be captured.
- In general, ‘Web scraping’ (web crawl) is commonly and explicitly prohibited by platforms’ terms of service, and platforms may take active steps to prevent web scaping.
- Web crawl captures the ‘look and feel’ of a social media platform (including branding, imagery, marketing information etc.) This is likely to be in direct contravention of platforms’ terms of service.
4.4 Social media platforms may provide Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to enable users, including archive services, to extract specific content from the platform. However, not all platforms provide these, and there are likely to be costs or restrictions around their use.
5. NRS approach to Social Media Archiving
5.1 Due to the factors described in section 4, NRS will support its depositors to independently extract or export content out of their own social media accounts.
5.2 NRS will provide guidance and support on the selection and appraisal of content.
5.3Types of social media content which NRS will typically recommend for archiving include:
- Corporate accounts of organisations.
- Official accounts attached to high profile roles, such as the First Minister.
- Corporate accounts which support particular policy initiatives or special events such as sporting events.
5.4 Types of social media content NRS will not typically recommend for archive include:
- Personal accounts
- Accounts of politicians
- Direct messages
5.5 NRS will provide guidance for account owners and records managers as to how they can export or extract content and metadata out of their social media accounts at regular intervals, or when accounts are closing. This will include guidance on preservable formats.
5.6 These records will be transferred to NRS for permanent preservation and access at a future date. NRS has created guidance for depositors on digital transfers, and will liaise with the depositor on the transfer of social media records.
6. Social Media Archiving by the NRS Web Continuity Service
6.1 Extract or export by depositors is the preferred and default means of creating a record of social media content. However, there may be instances where NRS will consider archiving accounts through the NRS Web Continuity Service. This will typically be where the following conditions are met:
- It is a high profile account disseminating key public information, such as one of the main accounts of the Scottish Government or
- There is a risk that information deemed by NRS to be worthy of permanent preservation will be lost;
- A free or low cost API exists for the platform, enabling NRS to capture content without risk of copyright infringement or accruing significant additional costs.
6.2 NRS will not archive any social media accounts without prior permission from the account owner. A representative from the organisation will be asked to complete a short questionnaire and confirm permission for capture. This process may take place independently of and, in certain cases, prior to any wider transfer agreement discussions with NRS. Social media archiving will form part of an organisation’s transfer agreement with NRS.
6.3 Ownership and responsibility for intellectual or legal interests will be agreed and set out in the relevant transfer agreement between NRS and the depositor.
6.4 NRS will only archive content which is, or has been, in the public domain. As a rule, we will not attempt to capture anything which resides behind a password/user registration process.
6.5 NRS does not yet have an access portal for archived social media content, however this remains an ambition. The decision to republish any archived social media content on this portal will be taken in conjunction with account owners and subject to UK GDPR and copyright legislation as outlined in the NRS Collections Information Policy.
6.6 This Policy will be reviewed every 3 years.
