The question comes in light of the recent young republicans leaks. Firstly, I’m not a republican and I think the shit they were saying was out of line, regardless of context. That said, the situation, among countless other times similar things have happened made me think. Is it reasonable to hold individuals accountable for statements made that they thought were in private. I think the public figure aspect is obviously the main catch here. In instances where the individual is a public figure, they kind of made their bed in my opinion. That said though, the more normal and sensational these events become the more realistic it is to widen in scope. Would it be reasonable for a future employer or date to pull up your group chats/private messages/anonymous posts?
I can speak as someone who holds public office.
In my work as an appointed member of government, all our meetings are held fully accessible to the public. We technically can have have conversations about what our votes will be, or what we think etc. outside of the meetings, however those conversations cannot let anyone whether us or any member of the public, know how the votes will go before the meeting happens, and that can include the minutes prior. If it happens it can range in anything from fines to jailtime, of course and garunteed to be blacklisted from just about any public work in the future given violation of our Oath of Office.
Thus, technically any conversations or messages between the board, our liason, etc. relating to the work we do can be subpoena’d or FIA’d, or just outright requested by members of the public given relevance, but generally anything we do as private citizens should remain private like for anyone else.