Is the "Alt" Right? (Twitter edition)@forestservice ‏vs. @AltForestServ

“Alternate” vs. Official Social Media Accounts

@forestservice = United States Forest Service

Choose which accounts to compare

@EPA vs. @AltUSEPA

@forestservice ‏vs. @AltForestServ

@USFW vs. @AlternateUSFW

@NOAA vs. @altNOAA

@NASA vs. @RogueNASA

graphic showing some alt vs. official social-media pairings

Twitter has long had @forestservice. Now it also has @AltForestServ and similar pairings.

We believe water is a universal concern that should transcend politics, and we want this site to be of service to everyone.

But we began to wonder — regardless of why they were deemed necessary¹ — how do the “Alt” social media accounts really compare to the official government agency ones? Here we’ll make it easy to form your own conclusion, with the most recent posts from two accounts for comparison:

@forestservice vs. @AltForestServ

[custom-twitter-feeds screenname=”forestservice” num=10 showfollow=false disablelinks=true showbutton=true exclude=”retweeter,linkbox,twitterlink”]

[custom-twitter-feeds screenname=”AltForestServ” num=10 showfollow=false disablelinks=true showbutton=true exclude=”retweeter,linkbox,twitterlink”]

1. In early 2017, scientists, technicians, and other employees of U.S.A. federal agencies began expressing fear of suppression or complete loss of research, data, and their freedom to communicate about it transparently. A number of people created independent social media accounts to serve as the uncensored, alternative counterparts of official accounts under control of federal agencies.