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After Gag Order Following 'Mistaken' Retweets, National Park Service Resumes Twitter Use

The National Park Service gag order was apparently lifted following critical retweets of the Trump administration.

The National Park Service (NPS) has resumed posting to its Twitter accounts following tensions between the agency and President Donald Trump. 

Issues first arose after the NPS retweeted content critical of the new administration’s removal of specific pages from the White House website. Almost immediately after being sworn into office, the Trump team removed the climate change and LGBT rights pages, which raised ire across social media platforms. 

The park service also retweeted images of former President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration against the widely reported smaller crowds of Trump’s 2017 inauguration.

According to an internal email published by Gizmodo, the NPS was told to discontinue use of its numerous Twitter accounts until further notice. The temporary ban did not extend to other authorized accounts.

In a tweet posted the day after the inauguration, the main park service account stated that it regretted the “mistaken” retweets. It has since resumed posting content.

 

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 pic.twitter.com/mctNNvlrmv — NationalParkService (@NatlParkService) January 21, 2017
 

Despite the restrictions, South Dakota's Badlands National Park tweeted a number of climate change facts, which have since been deleted.

But social media is not the only area where agencies have been ordered to stand down. The Boston Globe reported that the Environmental Protection Agency was also barred from all press releases, blog updates and new business activities, per orders from the new administration.

Eyragon Eidam is the web editor for Government Technology magazine, after previously serving as assistant news editor and covering such topics as legislation, social media and public safety. He can be reached at eeidam@erepublic.com.