While Hatch Act restrictions normally arise in the context of personal political activities, new Office of Special Counsel guidance cautions that those who have a role in what information goes out through their agency’s websites and social media accounts need to be mindful of them as well.
Such sites and accounts “should be limited to official business matters and remain politically neutral,” new OSC guidance says. This ban extends to not posting remarks an agency official made at a political event for a partisan candidate, or links to news articles about them, it said.
Agencies should not friend, like, follow, tweet or retweet about a partisan group or candidate in a partisan race or link to such entities, it says.
However, they may do so for the President or a current member of Congress.
