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Rogue NPS, EPA, NASA, FDA, CDC,HHS,NIH & USDA twitter accounts crop up overnight

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Fulminator

Member
cooljeanius said:
I'm kinda torn about whether or not I want confirmation for any of these. On the one hand, I don't want to follow fake accounts, but on the other hand, if they provided any sort of verification that they're actually rogue government employees, they could face repercussions...
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Does it matter that much if they're fake?

even if they aren't really government employees we should still be privy to the facts and research bring presented, so long as they are sharing accurate information
 
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Nelo Ice

Banned
Something tells me so many government employees, agencies etc are about to go rogue. There is dissent everywhere. This is unprecedented right?. Cuz holy shit I can't tell if I should be terrified or happy since all this turmoil seems like it's building up to something.
 
K

Kai Dracon

Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
This feels kind of like using the alt-right and internet white supremacist tactics against them. They created FUD over official organizations and presented internet facts and memes as the truth being hidden from the public.
 
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cooljeanius

Member
Fulminator said:
Does it matter that much if they're fake?

even if they aren't really government employees we should still be privy to the facts and research bring presented, so long as they are sharing accurate information
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If they're fake, it's less likely that they are sharing accurate information
 
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Dartastic

Member
I've actually been wondering about this. Haven't read the whole thread yet, and it probably should be in the OP. Are all these rogue accounts actually staffed by people who work at these agencies? I know that the parks ones are, but I'm not sure about the others.
 
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Kyzer

Banned
Fulminator said:
Does it matter that much if they're fake?

even if they aren't really government employees we should still be privy to the facts and research bring presented, so long as they are sharing accurate information
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the whole point is that if we dont know if the accounts are real we dont know if we can trust the info
 
H

How About No

Member
jacob armitage said:
Awesome... maybe don't use "alt" right now though. Though, perhaps i'm just being silly to it.
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Yeah that's a Tobias Funke-level slip up. I hope they don't blow themselves and get confused with joke accounts

Unless they can get in touch with Twitter to be able to get verified status? I dunno how that works.
 
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parrotbeak

Member
The cool thing about scientific data published in legitimate journals is that it will be peer reviewed. Verified twitter accounts don't make the information good. Take something you want to know more about and look it up on google scholar.
 
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FyreWulff

Member
Nelo Ice said:
Something tells me so many government employees, agencies etc are about to go rogue. There is dissent everywhere. This is unprecedented right?. Cuz holy shit I can't tell if I should be terrified or happy since all this turmoil seems like it's building up to something.
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It happened because Trump openly wants to purge the government and have only Trump loyalists remain. Because he straight up knew the executive establishment would (and is) trying to counter him.
 
Pilgrimzero

Pilgrimzero

Member
Head of the Rogue Scientists


0jbk8DD.jpg
 
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victreeb3l

Member
Stopdoor said:
These accounts seem to have all their followers automatically ported over? How does that work?

Edit: Unless they've just grown that quickly?
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Yeah they grew exponentially. The NPS one especially.

Jakten said:
I question the legitimacy of some of these. If you go back into the history of the AltNatParkSer account you can see posts like this:



https://twitter.com/AltNatParkSer/status/597086051245654019

Which makes me wonder where this account came from initially.
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Yikes. Any way to find out what their account was named before they changed?
 
M

Marky Mark

Member
Jacksinthe said:
From a cursory glance it appears the NASA page is posting things like facts.

If they weren't real then they would probably be posting not facts.

Considering most orgs have been silenced by Our Greatest Leader, I'm inclined to believe these are legit accounts ready to share info as rogue accounts.

Our Greatest Leader doesn't quite understand how cyber works. He may have gagged a few mouths but new ones can pop up just as quickly as they've been silenced.

It's like breaking a pencil in half. You didn't destroy it, you've just made 2 pencils.

Let this escalate. This will be good fun.
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Two pencils, each with half the lifespan and half their usefulness.
 
T

thebeeks

Banned
Fight the good fight, little Twitter accounts.

Lmo911 said:
ROGUE SCIENCE!

I hope these guys are legit, because after the last six days I needed something positive.
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I would absolutely read a scifi series about rogue scientists.

I'm less than thrilled to live it.
 
R

RMI

Banned
Not exactly what I predicted when I said that Trump shouldn't fuck with scientists, but basically the outcome I expected. Scientists are fucking DEVOTED to goddamned facts. And the entire purpose of their existence is to make those facts known. Good fucking luck putting a gag order on that you orange piece of shit.
 
S

sc0la

Unconfirmed Member
My coworker has argued climate scientists exaggerate global warming because that's how they get money for their "research" because that's what the people in power want to hear. I need to ask him why if the people in power don't believe in climate change anymore the scientists aren't still chasing the dollar with new studies debunking it.
 
K

kendrid

Banned
Izayoi said:
Never thought that TOR would ever need to be used in the US for freedom of speech reasons, but here we are...
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I was just thinking the same thing. Between the FCC and what it might do to the Internet and the censure of scientists TOR is now needed in America. WTF.
 
B

Bobby Roberts

Banned
capitalCORN said:
Check out the Slate twitter, they're calling for snitches.
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They're not calling for snitches, they're trying to verify whether or not the accounts are being run by actual employees of the federal government.

It's functionally no different than when redditors independently verify anonymous sources. Or hell, when GAF mods here verify independent sources.

The accounts only have worth if the people running them are actually people in the agencies being gagged. Otherwise it's just people taking advantage of a shitty situation for hits/follows.

It's not really any different from the "fake news" everyone was decrying not less than a month ago, saying things people want to hear and feeding confirmation bias for the sake of pumping up a narrative that, if true, wouldn't need the pumping.

Authenticity is important.

Granted - Slate's fucking up in HOW they're pursuing this. But the pursuit itself isn't a bad thing. Been seeing Matt Pearce of the LA Times arguing the same thing earlier in the evening.
 
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