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Trump bans EPA employees from giving social media updates

thehill.com

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Re: Trump bans EPA employees from giving social media updates

#81

Post by vacri »

oppositelock wrote: post #47
shshhdhs wrote: post #5

I was curious if a case could be made for First Amendment rights, but I just re-read it... "Congress shall make no law regarding..." I guess Executive Orders can bypass all of that.

Just like a private company can have speech codes without running afoul of the first amendment, so can the US Government for its employees. That's all it is - not some law, but an employer mandate. The first amendment applies to law governing speech.

TFA even points out that the tweeting is only verboten if associated with the gov dept.

Weird that it's EPA-only, though.

Re: Trump bans EPA employees from giving social media updates

#82

Post by y_u_no_rust »

cyberferret wrote: post #6

I am looking for reasonable explanations for this, but keep coming up blank. I grew up in a country where this sort of censorship and fact hiding was the norm, and hated it. I now live in a country that is much freer, but for the first time since 1938, no longer has an active US ambassador, with no replacement in sight, since President Trump fired all US ambassadors to foreign countries on the afternoon of his inaugu…

Stop being a baby --

Once we get the costly illegals out of our country things will start getting better there will even be less terrorist attacks because we won't let them past the gate.

Re: Trump bans EPA employees from giving social media updates

#83

Post by vmeson »

We went through this sort of censorship of government scientists and departments in Canada with the conservative Harper government: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/faq-the-issues-around-muzz...

The US should not put up with any, even a temporary form of such censorship of the parts of the government that are doing scientific research and environmental stewardship. There should be another march in a week or two to support scientific freedom. Trump does not determine scientific truth, peer review and the scientific method does.

Re: Trump bans EPA employees from giving social media updates

#84

Post by nikdaheratik »

sqeaky wrote: post #26

This is surprisly reasonable compared to what I thought it was going to say when I heard about it first from others. The first I heard it was "A total media blackout" on the EPA and other departments. This article just says, that buzzfeed says, that goverment employees can't post on Twitter and Facebook claiming their personal opinion is policy. Unless I misread something, let me know if I did, or if this article is…

As far as private accounts go, there are already social media policies in place just as in most other large organisations. They already have policies that govern scientific papers as well and those haven't been overridden. The administration just doesn't know how to communicate what it wants (which is for no one to talk to the media without "their people" in place), and to make it worse they don't have a timetable on when their media people are in place because they don't have people who know what they are doing running the transition. This gives government employees who have their own agenda (and not necessarily left-vs-right wing either) the ability to control the message by leaking to the press.

Re: Trump bans EPA employees from giving social media updates

#85

Post by xname2 »

mcphage wrote: post #74
Pyxl101 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Came here to make the same point: It's not appropriate for the official social media account of a government agency to tweet political content that criticizes the current President. That's going too far, and I'm not surprised at all that they were told to shut it.

Showing the number of people who attended the inauguration is a criticism, all of a sudden? That's some seriously thin skin.

Compare to the former president? Are you even serious?

Re: Trump bans EPA employees from giving social media updates

#86

Post by candiodari »

cyberferret wrote: post #35
jquery wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The existing social media managers are openly hostile to the new boss, with irrelevant-to-their-organization tweets going out about the inauguration crowd-size? To your latter point regarding the fired ambassadors, it's the most scandalous thing since 2008, when Obama did the exact same thing - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2008/12/obama-gives-poli...

Point taken, but I believe when Obama did it, there was already someone appointed to take the outgoing ambassadors place immediately (at least, here, it was the case). A changing of the guard in these roles is (as the article I posted pointed out) the norm. However, In the current case, no one knows who the replacement is, or when he/she will be taking on the role, thus leaving us officially without an ambassador for…

> Point taken, but I believe when Obama did it, there was already someone appointed to take the outgoing ambassadors place immediately (at least, here, it was the case).

Unless I'm misremembering, that wasn't the case. Obama was appointing ambassadors regularly for a few months.

Re: Trump bans EPA employees from giving social media updates

#87

Post by mjmsmith »

monksy wrote: post #27
some-guy wrote: post #9

Also happening with the National Parks Service [0]. [0] http://gizmodo.com/national-park-service-banned-from-tweetin...

Not sure I disagree with that order. The NPS intentionally retweeted a political statement. (Showing the crowds for Obama's inauguration and Trumps) It was a very stupid thing to do.

It's only a "political statement" because the President continually repeats the most obvious lies, to the extent that he appears to be mentally ill.

Paul Ryan said today that there was no evidence of wide-spread voter fraud. Since the President still keeps telling obvious lies about the subject, was that a "political statement" on Ryan's part?

Re: Trump bans EPA employees from giving social media updates

#88

Post by codedokode »

cyberferret wrote: post #40
jquery wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The existing social media managers are openly hostile to the new boss, with irrelevant-to-their-organization tweets going out about the inauguration crowd-size? To your latter point regarding the fired ambassadors, it's the most scandalous thing since 2008, when Obama did the exact same thing - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2008/12/obama-gives-poli...

> The existing social media managers are openly hostile to the new boss, with irrelevant-to-their-organization tweets going out about the inauguration crowd-size? But wasn't it the Parks agency that tweeted about the crowd size, not the EPA? And is the current administration simply going to shut down or fire everyone who shows any form of push back towards the regime? Isn't that what they do in places like, oh say, N…

I guess in North Korea they would not get away with just getting fired.

Re: Trump bans EPA employees from giving social media updates

#89

Post by xname2 »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #10
woofyman wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The president can't issue unconstitutional executive orders but has great powers over the executive branch which this falls under.

Right. He can't stop you from saying what you want to say. He can stop you from saying what you want to say on an official Federal government platform . For that matter, many employers can do that. I can say whatever I please, but not with my company name on it.

Exactly, can't believe so many people here lacking basic understanding of professionalism. You can't use office account to deliver your personal message.

Re: Trump bans EPA employees from giving social media updates

#90

Post by mjmsmith »

xname2 wrote: post #85
mcphage wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Showing the number of people who attended the inauguration is a criticism, all of a sudden? That's some seriously thin skin.

Compare to the former president? Are you even serious?

The former President who never lost his temper over six years of claims that he wasn't an American? Are you paid to be here too?
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