ArchiveSocial

ArchiveSocial, now operating as a brand under Optimere and owned by CivicPlus, was established in 2011 by Anil Chawla. Chawla, a computer science graduate from Georgia Tech and former IBM software engineer, identified a critical gap in the public sector's adoption of social media. He recognized that while government agencies were increasingly using social platforms for citizen engagement, they lacked the tools to comply with public records laws for this new form of communication. This insight led to the creation of ArchiveSocial in Durham, North Carolina, with a mission to help public and private agencies automate the record-keeping of their social media activity for compliance and legal protection.

The company operates on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) business model, generating revenue through monthly subscription plans. Its primary clients are government entities, including towns, counties, municipalities, law enforcement agencies, and K-12 school districts. A significant milestone was the collaboration with the Obama White House to create the first-ever public archive of presidential social media, a project that significantly boosted the company's profile. This relationship continued with the archiving of the subsequent administration's social media records for the U.S. National Archives. By 2019, the company had secured over 2,000 customers and received a substantial $53 million growth equity investment from Level Equity to fuel expansion.

The platform connects directly to an organization's social media accounts through APIs to capture and preserve content in near real-time, including posts that have been edited or deleted. It archives records from networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Key features include the ability to replay records chronologically, advanced search capabilities, and the preservation of records in their native format to prove authenticity with digital timestamps and metadata. This ensures agencies can respond to public records requests and mitigate legal risks. In 2021, ArchiveSocial merged with Monsido and NextRequest to form Optimere, creating a more comprehensive compliance platform. Subsequently, in 2022, Optimere was acquired by CivicPlus, integrating ArchiveSocial into a broader suite of technology solutions for the public sector.

Keywords: social media archiving, public records compliance, government technology, govtech, e-discovery, regulatory compliance, risk management, SaaS, digital records management, legal protection, law enforcement social media, school district compliance, public sector communications, Anil Chawla, Level Equity, CivicPlus, Optimere, records retention, transparency in government, digital compliance