By Natalia Castro, 2/8/17
If most of us defied our bosses on
social media we would be fired, yet apparently when it is the federal
government being mocked by self-proclaimed rogue employees, it is an apparent
act of patriotism. Liberal media are touting the prevalence of @RogueNASA and @AltEPA, Twitter pages aimed at delegitimizing the Trump
administration; but these accounts are treading a thin legal line and simply
acting as a liberal microphone.
The drama apparently began
when the
National Park Service’s official Twitter account was temporarily shut down by
the Trump administration after it
engaged in political tweets against Trump.
In an apparent response, Death
Valley National Park, a government managed federal park, took to Twitter to
seemingly comment on President Donald Trump’s proposed immigration policies on
Jan. 25. The Death
Valley Park Service tweeted a picture
of a Japanese man sent to internment in the 1940s with a quotation advocating
for looser immigration restraints.
The Death Valley Park Service’s
decision to tweet immigration advocacy rather than their usual traffic updates
and facts about flowers has spurred government employees from several other
agencies to similar sponsorship of the cause. The same day, accounts suchas @RogueNASA, @AltUSNatParkSer, @AltEPA and @Alt_NASA started popping up, all claiming to be run by active
or former employees of their respective departments in order to act in
resistance to the Trump administration.
For example, on Jan. 25, @RogueNASA
tweeted, “How sad is it that government
employees have to create rogue Twitter accounts just to communicate FACTS to
the American public?”
As these pages attempt to replicate
the existence of real national park accounts, several have taken official logos
and avatars from their official agency counterparts. Yet government trademark
laws such as 18 U.S.C. Section
701 specifically prohibits the use
of government insignia on non-government websites and pages.
That law states, “Whoever
manufactures, sells, or possesses any badge, identification card, or other
insignia, of the design prescribed by the head of any department or agency of
the United States for use by any officer or employee thereof, or any colorable
imitation thereof, or photographs, prints, or in any other manner makes or
executes any engraving, photograph, print, or impression in the likeness of any
such badge, identification card, or other insignia, or any colorable imitation
thereof, except as authorized under regulations made pursuant to law, shall be
fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.”
While the copyright and trademark
law does provide latitude for instances of parody however; As Kalev Leetaru
explained on Forbes.com on Jan. 25, “The accounts in question have
positioned themselves less as satiric and humorous parodies of the official
accounts they mimic, but rather as resistance accounts that purport to offer
the true story of those organizations. In particular, the accounts have
positioned themselves in their tweets as alternative authoritative resources
for those interested in their respective agencies’ research, replacing
the official accounts.” This led several accounts to switch to new images.
This is a desperate attempt by
liberal, apparent, government employees to resist Trump’s authority and dismiss
his policies on immigration, energy, and the environment. The worst part, as Leetaru notes, is
that it is unknown if these are actual government employees from any of these
agencies. They could be fakes. Although since they used real agency logos, even
briefly, that would still probably violate the statute. It could be
anyone hosting these “rogue” Twitter pages and, still, social media has given
them a platform.
Politico
writer Nancy Scola believes that the National
Park employees felt particular angst surrounding Trump’s election due to his
stance against EPA’s policies designed to combat climate issues. Unfortunately
for these employees, Trump is president. And while they have
the privilege of working for the federal government each day, thousands of
Americans have been struggling due to the regulations of the Obama
Administration. By whining on social media about the election, they are
delegitimizing the plight of every American who lost their job because of
government policies.
The presence of these rogue accounts
is not only legally dubious, it demonstrates a larger problem of bureaucrats
out of control — who believe they are entitled to their positions of power.
This is legitimate not whistleblowing, it’s a temper tantrum.
Ironically, the whole controversy
underscores the reason while millions of Americans voted for Trump to drain the
swamp. Liberal government employees may believe they are creating a resistance,
but in reality they are only resisting the positive change that the American
people have been asking for to get the economy moving again.
Natalia
Castro is a contributing editor at Americans for Limited Government.
Comments
If you
look at the “enumerated powers” in the US Constitution (as written), all
federal employees getting paid by working in unconstitutional departments,
agencies and programs should be nervous. If the founders didn’t think they were
necessary, maybe they aren’t.
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
No comments:
Post a Comment