Official Twitter account’s tweet “hello literally everyone”, after a global Facebook / Instagram outage sent users flocking to Twitter to comment in October 2021. Image: Koshiro K/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffNew guidance from DoD stresses that its personnel — both civilian employees and military — “must ensure that all personal social media accounts are clearly identifiable as personal accounts” and “do not necessarily represent the views of their agency or the United States.”
That means, for example, that they should “avoid use of DoD titles, insignia, uniforms, or symbols in a way that could imply DoD sanction or endorsement of the content” and use only non-official contact information such as phone numbers with such accounts.
Where there may be doubt, it encourages use of a disclaimer to the effect that “The views and opinions presented herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of DoD or its Components.” It also encourages a similar disclaimer regarding mentions of any commercial products or services, external links, or any information, products or services found on those sites.
However, personnel “are not prohibited from using personal social media accounts to forward, like, or link to official information, provided it is done in a manner that does not express or imply DoD sanction or endorsement of any personal content,” it says.
Other requirements are that personnel are not to: use government resources for non-official, personal activities; disclose non-public information; conduct official business on personal accounts; “accept compensation for any activity relating to one’s status as a DoD civilian employee or military service member”; or engage in partisan political activity that would violate the Hatch Act as it applies to social media under law and Office of Government Ethics policy.
The guidance, which also addresses policies regarding official DoD social media accounts, is here: https://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/DD/issuances/dodi/540017p.PDF
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