Mayor Parker’s social media crackdown ruffles feathers with librarians

The Philadelphia Parkway Central Library on Logan Square. Individual library branches will have to funnel their communications through Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s office, starting this week.

City Hall’s new social media crackdown appears to have caused a kerfuffle for neighborhood library branches.

Nearly three weeks ago, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration enacted a vetting process for all public information and social media posts. While city departments were previously free to handle their own social media engagement with little oversight, the new policy requires dozens of municipal agencies to send drafts of everything from Instagram posts to news releases to the mayor’s communication office for approval.

On Monday night, a handful of Free Library of Philadelphia branches posted alarming messages for their neighborhood regulars — a seemingly orchestrated push before the policy took effect Tuesday.

“Updates from all 54 locations of the Free Library will not be in real time, starting today,” the Cecil B. Moore branch wrote in an Instagram post. “Staff are not sure how long communications delays will be or what type of digital and print content will be subject to censorship.”

“This means our posts will be less frequent including reposting community events as they’ll have to get approval first too,” the Lovett Memorial Library wrote in another Instragram post. “Please be patient as we try to navigate this new policy from the mayors’s office.”

Parker spokesperson Joe Grace said library branches were recently informed via email that the new policy would take effect this week. He acknowledged the concerns, but urged librarians not to worry about censorship.

“We’re still implementing the policy and bringing it to life,” Grace said Tuesday. “I believe the policy is working and there’s no intention to stop library branches from notifying their customers of library hours, or programs involving seniors or families.”

The policy, as Clout recently reported, is meant create a “unified voice” within the new administration, thereby avoiding confusion and muddled messaging.

So perhaps the library snafu is just a miscommunication in an attempt to end further miscommunication.

Grace cited the mayor’s preparation for the January snowstorm — with all agencies funneling their communications through the mayor’s office in real time — as an example of the policy’s early success. He said it also helped stop a rumor about an escaped prisoner’s apprehension from percolating within the mayor’s office.

Still, some government employees have grumbled that the policy is excessive. The rollout will also apply to offices big and small, from city health clinics to rec centers, creating worries about a potential public information backlog. Do all 54 library branches really need the mayor’s green-light to post updates about baby story-time or yarning club?

Grace said that won’t be the case — in time.

His team has already allowed some departments to post non-sensitive information without approval from the mayor’s top advisers.

“The Water Department puts out very technical stuff frequently,” Grace said. “We’ve already told them to put out technical info, and keep us in the loop if something happens, but there is no attempt to slow anybody down.”

“We’ve been doing this for a few weeks,” he added, “and we have not to the best of my knowledge stopped or slowed or hindered any agency from getting its information out in real time.”

Clout provides often irreverent news and analysis about people, power, and politics.

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