After Dig at Trump, Interior Dept Ordered to Stop Tweeting

'Urgent directive' was issued from DC
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 21, 2017 8:09 AM CST
After Dig at Trump, Interior Dept Ordered to Stop Tweeting
A screenshot of the NPS Twitter account before deletions.   (Twitter)

The Interior Department was ordered to stop tweeting from all its official accounts Friday after two posts from the National Park Service that seemed to criticize the new administration. One tweet illustrated the big difference in turnout between President Obama's 2009 inauguration and Friday's more lightly attended event with photos from the top of the Washington Monument, the Hill reports. The other retweet contained a link to an article about the White House website removing pages about climate change and civil rights, among other things. The tweets were removed from the NPS account later in the day.

National Park employees and all Interior Department bureaus were told there was an "urgent directive" to "immediately cease use of government Twitter accounts until further notice," according to an email obtained by Gizmodo. Parks "that use Twitter as part of their crisis communications plans need to alter their contingency plans to accommodate this requirement," the email stated. The department's dozens of Twitter accounts include those of the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the US Geological Survey, the Washington Post notes. According to the email, the department expects "further guidance" next week. (More Interior Dept. stories.)

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