Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser criticized the Council of the District of Columbia for exempting itself from a law meant to shore up transparency in government, arguing the measure unduly targets her use of private messaging apps.
Bowser, who is said to use WhatsApp to conduct government business, argued the law mandating digital communications regarding government business be treated as public records was the “height of hypocrisy” because it subjected her to oversight while carving out exemptions for councilmembers.
“I am sure you would agree that it would be the height of hypocrisy to update record retention storage requirements for the executive side of the government, while shielding the Council’s communications from public view,” she wrote in a Tuesday letter to Chairman Phil Mendelson, later urging the D.C. Council “to amend this emergency to extend applicability to the Council itself and provide equal treatment under the law.”
But watchdogs argued Bowser’s use of WhatsApp for government use is a “clear violation of the law.”
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“Use of a messaging app that does not provide for collection, archiving, search, or generally, availability to the public of that information is a clear violation of law and circumvention of open government principles,” D.C. Open Government Coalition President Tom Susman told Axios.
WhatsApp allows users to turn on an auto-delete feature that removes messages after a certain amount of time. Existing Washington law prohibits electronic communications from being deleted or destroyed to maintain accurate record-keeping.
The D.C. Council already requires all its employees to conduct public business through its government-provided email, cellphone, or other electronic devices. For any business-related messages sent outside of those platforms, employees are required to submit them to council records in a text-searchable format, a point Mendelson emphasized after the council’s vote on Tuesday.
The app is reportedly used in several levels of the district government, with sources saying they were instructed to download the app to get in touch with the mayor and her circle of aides, according to an investigation from the outlet. The app is reportedly used for casual conversations as well as organizing social media strategies. Several political donors reportedly said they also discuss political strategy and city projects via the messaging app.
Some expressed unease at Bowser’s use of WhatsApp, with one city employee saying past messages would get lost if they weren’t backed up, making conversations confusing.
The emergency legislation passed the council unanimously on Tuesday, and the measure, which clarified existing law to ensure that text messages, images, and phone calls be retained and subjected to publication under public information requests, earned applause from some councilmembers.
“I get it that many in government would like to conduct their business in private,” said Mendelson, who introduced the bill. “But that is contrary to long-standing policy. We value open government.”
Mendelson stressed that “transparency within the government” is “imperative for residents to trust their public servants.”
Bowser has no authority to veto the law because it is an emergency resolution, meaning the council only needed nine votes to enact it and that it’s effective immediately without mayoral review.
The mayor did not respond to inquiries about whether she prohibited the use of auto-delete settings or how her administration ensures messages are archived, and her office did not respond to a request for comment by the Washington Examiner.
Government ethics groups have long discouraged the use of messaging apps, including WhatsApp, unless measures are taken to ensure retention records. In 2019, the D.C. Open Government Coalition wrote to the mayor’s office to request the prohibition of the use of “private text messaging services to transact public business.”
“We understand that even messages sent and received on District-issued devices are not captured and saved on a District-controlled server. Since the District does not have access to servers used by third-party vendors, it cannot effect retrieval of employees’ government-related communications from those platforms,” wrote the group, which advocates for transparency within the government. “Until such a system is in place in D.C., the only responsible course of action consistent with current law is to prohibit use of text messages for public business.”
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The use of WhatsApp within Bowser’s office also came under scrutiny in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol after the Washington Post made a Freedom of Information Act request for access to the mayor’s emails and communications from that day. Although district attorneys argued they found no relevant WhatsApp messages for review regarding the newspaper’s request, D.C. Superior Court Judge Yvonne Williams wrote in an order in January that the “Court is not convinced that the Mayor’s search … was sufficient.”
Some parts of that request are still under legal review, and the court is set to reconvene in April.
