U.S. Government: Alternate vs. Official Social Media
Change note: during evolving changes at Twitter, our “live feed comparisons” are offline. The disruptions, at least for now, require comparing Twitter feeds to be done manually. —H2O IQ editor
Alternative (“alt”) social-media accounts arose, largely, out of need during a time of internal USA political influences that called into question the integrity of government agency posts.
We wondered — regardless of why they were deemed necessary1 — how do “Alt” social media accounts really compare to official government agency ones?
Partial list, agency accounts and alts
See the vetted list of alt/rogue accounts maintained by Snopes.com. Also note that, if the need for them wanes, such accounts might post less often or go dormant. Neither the snopes list nor this one is updated regularly.
| U.S. Agency | Official | Alt / Rogue |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | @EPA @EPAwater @EPAresearch | @altUSEPA |
| U.S.D.A. Forest Service | @forestservice @ForestServiceSW @ForestServiceNW @USFSRockyMtns @OkaWenNF | @AltForestServ |
| U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service | @USFWS @USFWSNews @USFWSPacific @USFWSMtnPrairie @USFWSNortheast @USFWSSoutheast @USFWSRefuges @USFWSFisheries @USFWSIntl | |
| NOAA | @NOAA @oceanexplorer @NOAAFisheries @NOAAFish_NWFSC @SeaGrant @NOAALibrary @NOAANCEI @NOAAeducation @NASAClimate | @altNOAA @ReallyAltNOAA |
| NASA | @NASA @NASAEarth | @RogueNASA |
1. In early 2017, some scientists, technicians, and other employees of U.S.A. federal agencies began expressing fear of suppression or loss of publicly funded research, data, and the freedom to communicate about it transparently. Some created independent social media accounts to serve as the uncensored, alternative counterparts of official accounts under control of federal agencies; they may be more or less political, and more or less partisan, depending on their respective operators.
