Agencies Get Green Light to Use Six-Second Video Sharing Site

The post has been updated to note the GSA Vine video was replaced with a NASA video. 

Twitter’s six-second social video site Vine is now open to federal users.

The General Services Administration's new media office announced on Monday it had inked government-friendly terms of service with Vine.

GSA initially made the announcement with its own Vine video of office staff playfully demonstrating the tool's trademark fast-paced clips edited together by pausing a recording every few seconds. 

That video was replaced early Tuesday with a NASA Vine video of the earth at night. GSA made the change to highlight an example of an agency currently using Vine, a spokesman said. 

Twitter launched Vine about two months ago. 

Vine accounts will be added to the Federal Social Media Registry in the coming weeks as agencies create Vine profiles, the new media office said via Twitter. The registry verifies official government social media accounts to distinguish them from fan and parody accounts.

It’s not clear yet how agencies will use Vine’s six-second videos. Twitter’s 140 characters once seemed far too short for a government agency to convey useful information and Twitter is now among the most common tools agencies use to get information to the public. 

With @vineapp @joseph_marks_ we knew agencies needed more mobile visual sharing: @vineapp is new, but we wanted agencies to have it early.

— GSA New Media (@GovNewMedia) April 1, 2013