A watchdog group called Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT), says that the White House may have violated the law when it deleted a tweet about Social Security after it was fact-checked by the Elon Musk-controlled Twitter.
PPT’s mission is to expose “self-dealing, conflicts of interest, and improper and illegal behavior of senior officials.” The group is calling for an investigation to determine whether the deletion of the tweet was a violation of the Presidential Records Act, which prohibits the destruction of presidential records without permission.
“Enforcement of public records laws, such as FOIA, is virtually impossible if records retention policies are not enforced, including those covering social media,” Michael Chamberlain, PPT director, said in a statement. “If the American public is going to trust its government, these policies must be enforced equally, regardless of who is in power, and skirting the requirements to avoid embarrassment or political backlash must not be seen as legitimate justifications.”
On Nov. 1, the White House claimed in a tweet, “Seniors are getting the biggest increase in their Social Security checks in 10 years through President Biden’s leadership,” but the post was later flagged for missing context because the reason for the increase was inflation.
Related: BAM! White House Deletes Tweet Flagged as Misinformation by Twitter
“While personal records are exempt from the preservation requirements, the Nov. 1 tweet on the official White House account is almost certainly a record that belongs to the public and subject to the Act’s destruction protocols,” PPT explains. “Subsequent explanations provided by White House officials raise concerns over whether the appropriate retention process was adhered to or whether authorization to destroy an official record was received prior to the Presidential record being permanently destroyed, as required by law.”
The Biden administration has done plenty of shady things, but I was doubtful this incident rises to the level of a Presidential Records Act violation, since Twitter is a private company and posts are made for public consumption. PPT director Michael Chamberlain reached out to PJ Media to explain why it applies.
“As an employee at the Department of Education, I was instructed that deleting a post was akin to destroying a public record,” Chamberlain explained. “Despite the fact that Twitter is a private company (as well as Facebook/Meta, etc.), social media posts from official federal accounts are considered public records. Unless new guidance has been issued, which would be an interesting development, the public is right to expect that record retention policies will be applied equally and without regard to political party.”
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