NASA, NPS And EPA Now All Have 'Rogue' Twitter Accounts
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- At least three government agencies, NASA, the National Park Service and the Environmental Protection Agency, now have unofficial "resistance" Twitter accounts.
All have tweeted negatively about President Donald Trump's administration, saying it has already proven itself willing to ignore scientific facts about the environment.
The trend began with the NPS, which was forced to shut down its official Twitter activity temporarily after retweeting things about the attendance of Trump's inauguration and the disappearance of some pages on WhiteHouse.gov.
On Saturday morning, the @NatlParkService account tweeted: "We regret the mistaken RTs from our account yesterday and look forward to continuing to share the beauty and history of our parks with you"
This week, after Trump's administration instituted what it described as a temporary media blackout at the Environmental Protection Agency and barred staff from awarding any new contracts or grants, Badlands National Park in South Dakota tweeted numerous climate change facts. They were later deleted.
A NPS official told multiple outlets that the posts were written by a former employee who was no longer authorized to use the account.
Then, a new Twitter account popped up: @AltNatParkSer.
In its bio, it describes the account as "The Unofficial 'Resistance' team of U.S. National Park Service. Not taxpayer subsidised!"
A pinned tweet on the account says: "Can't wait for President Trump to call us FAKE NEWS. You can take our official twitter, but you'll never take our free time!"
Early Thursday morning, the account tweeted: "We have decided to pass over control of this account to individuals outside of government employment for the sake of our colleagues. The past few days have proven the immense belief & support this country has in our national parks, environment and scientific departments. But we cannot escape the pressure that the popularity of this account has brought on our colleagues. It's selfish to continue ourselves."
"The Trump Administration can take down websites, but they can't change the facts," @ActualEPAFacts tweeted Thursday morning.
The account claims to be run by three EPA employees and a writer.
That page's bio reads: "He can take our official Twitter but he'll never take our FREEDOM. UNOFFICIALLY resisting at the @EPA."
On Wednesday, it began a "Voices from the EPA series" in which employees were allegedly quoted and only identified by the number of years they've been with the agency.
NASA has two rogue accounts, @Alt_NASA and @RogueNASA.
@RogueNASA's bio reads: "The unofficial "Resistance" team of NASA. Not an official NASA account. Not managed by gov't employees. Come for the facts, stay for the snark."
@Alt_NASA's says: "The unofficial #resist team of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration."
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