National Parks Service 'goes rogue' in response to Trump Twitter ban

If you had “National Parks subtweet the new president” on your 2017 bingo card, today’s your lucky day.

After the US National Parks Service was temporarily banned for retweeting images comparing Trump and Obama’s inaugurations, the official Twitter account of the appropriately named Badlands National Park, based in South Dakota, appeared to go rogue by posting a series of now-deleted tweets on climate change.

Badlands National Park’s now-deleted tweets on climate change Photograph: Twitter

The tweets were eventually deleted, and, while the official accounts may not be saying much right now, some “alternative” accounts have been set up. One, @BadHombreNPS tweeted: “Hey, friends. Here to support @BadlandsNPS with the science facts they can no longer share!”

The most popular is @AltNatParkSer, which bills itself as the unofficial “resistance” team of the US National Parks Service.

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!

— AltUSNatParkService (@AltNatParkSer) January 25, 2017

One of its initial tweets read: “Mr Trump, you may have taken us down officially. But with scientific evidence & the Internet our message will get out.”

The owner of the account has yet to respond to the Guardian’s request for comment, but told reporters:

@AltNatParkSer Is this a quasi-official account (run by members of the NPS) or a fan account?

— Jett Goldsmith (@JettGoldsmith) January 25, 2017

As of yet, it has not been verified whether the account is actually run by National Park employees. Eagle-eyed tweeters noticed the account had tweeted about the British general election in 2015.

A National Parks official told BuzzFeed the climate change tweets were posted by a “former employee” who was not authorised to use the account.

They added: “The park was not told to remove the tweets but chose to do so when they realised that their account had been compromised.”

This isn’t even the first time National Parks Twitter accounts have run afoul of the Trump administration. Over the weekend, they were temporarily told to halt tweeting after its main account retweeted pictures comparing the turnouts of Trump and Obama’s inaugurations. They later apologised for the “mistaken RTs”.

Read more https://www.theguardian.com/technology/news-blog/2017/jan/25/national-parks-service-goes-rogue-in-response-to-trump-twitter-ban

Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd