THE Department of Information and Communications Technology is putting standards in place for how government agencies use social media to communicate with the public.
DICT Deputy Secretary Flierl Shongol told the Permanent Parliamentary Committee on Communications that the department already has a social media standard for the public sector.
“We have a social media standard for the public sector,” Mr Shongol said during the multi-agency hearing at Parliament yesterday.
The department is now working on guidelines to help public agencies follow the standard when using social media for official communication.
“We’re looking at guidelines and standards that should guide all public sector in how we use social media to communicate,” he said.
The guidelines will cover what information should and should not be shared on social media, security levels on different platforms and communication standards for government agencies.
DICT is also looking at how official government social media accounts are created and used as part of efforts to bring government communication under common standards.
The move puts government public relations officers in a central position as agencies work to apply the standards.
Committee chairman Marsh Narewec said PROs, together with digital transformation officers and IT managers, would be important in making the standards work across government.
He suggested DICT consider a summit or similar platform for government PROs, modelled on the Digital Transformation Summit.
The proposed platform would give PROs from different agencies a place to meet, exchange ideas and discuss how government information should be communicated.
Mr Shongol agreed that bringing the officers together would give DICT an opportunity to educate them and work directly with those responsible for government communication.
The discussion also looked at the need for government agencies to present information in a more consistent way.
DICT is working to standardise official government websites so people can find information more easily when accessing different public agencies.
“We have a standard set that have gone out, and the official website has gone out,” Mr Shongal said.
“All the public agencies should comply with it.”
The department’s Division of Information and Network works across government on the dissemination of government information and is also laying the groundwork to support right-to-information when the relevant law comes into effect.
The social media and website standards form part of DICT’s wider work to improve how government communicates with the public across its different agencies.