All the Interior Department Twitter accounts were back online Saturday after they were suddenly shut down Friday following two retweets of messages that were not exactly friendly to the new president. The National Park Service apologized on Saturday for what it called “mistaken RTs from our account yesterday.”
On Friday the National Park Service surprised many by retweeting a journalist who had posted side-by-side photos of the crowds at Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration and President Donald Trump’s inauguration.The account had also retweeted a message that referenced how certain sections, including civil rights and climate change, had been removed from the White House website following the inauguration.
Shortly after the messages were posted, an email went out to all Department of Interior employees ordering to “immediately cease use of government Twitter accounts until further notice.” On Saturday, as spokesman for the National Park Service said the retweets were “inconsistent with the agency’s approach to engaging the public through social media.” The offending tweets have been deleted and the Park Service didn’t say whether the employee responsible for the retweets had been identified.
