UK Home Office warns tech staff not to tweet negative Donald Trump posts

The UK Home Office is warning staff and contractors not to tweet or retweet negative posts about Donald Trump, in an email about its social media guidance seen by The Register. In a missive to the department's Digital, Data and Technology unit last week, it told staff "a quick look through just a couple of known personal …

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, good idea

After all pandering to lunatics has always been effective in the past in making them see reality and in no way promotes their belief that their actions are reasonable.

Home Office actually says "we want their money and you are fking it up, so what if they are loons. Just keep schtum and get us the cash"

[ElReg!comments!Pierre]

Re: Yes, good idea

It's simpler than that. On official accounts, what is posted must be the official view of the organization. Private accounts should not mention the org. If you work for Boeing and post "I work for Boeing, and frankly Airbus makes safer planes", you'd expect some flak from higher up, too.

[TRT]

Re: Yes, good idea

I like your use of the word "flak" in that post.

[Havin_it]

Re: Yes, good idea

Doesn't flak usually come from underneath though?

[cd]

Re: Yes, good idea

Only media flak.

[Kiwi]

Re: Yes, good idea

Doesn't flak usually come from underneath though?

Beat me to it ya buggar..

[fajensen]

Re: Yes, good idea

It's Russian flak - Modelled over Russian traffic, It will try to murder you from any direction at any time.

[hatti]

Re: Yes, good idea

That depends if it's upflak or downflak, sideflak is quite rare though.

[Avatar of They]

Re: Yes, good idea

Last thing we want is an official spat between the 'monkey overlord' and the home office. It would lead to even more people having visa issues in the name of racism, sorry I mean in the name of keeping America safe.

But does seem to be good advice.

[rovek]

Re: Yes, good idea

It's not that simple at all. Obviously mentioning in the same item both your employer and a controversial view relevant to your employer's business is potentially going to get you in trouble but I sincerely doubt this is what they're seeing.

Is it fair to say that if your employer is listed anywhere in the internet as HO you aren't allowed to publish anything political because a simple search will uncover your affiliation? That's more like how their internal email sounds to me.

[NoneSuch]

Re: Yes, good idea

"However, some have commented that the reminder reflects an increasingly draconian and closed social media policy - following the more open attitude encouraged by the likes of the Government Digital Service."

And it won't be long until this 'policy' spreads to regular citizens. Any government that seeks to control speech is not a democracy.

[Ian Michael Gumby]

@AC ... Re: Yes, good idea

Seriously?

The point is that if you post something online, it will haunt you as long as its available.

With respect to DHS scanning your online social media profile... there's a very good reason for that.

Perhaps you don't remember the San Bernardino shooting?

The investigation found that the guy was radicalized by his wife that he brought in to the US to get married. Had they scanned her social media account during the immigration process, they would have found her comments and caught her in a lie. In fact her profile was filled with a couple red flags.

So there is a reason why DHS is now attempting to do this.

Facebook is pulling a brain dead stunt, of course, all your data is theirs.

[Phil W]

Re: @AC ... Yes, good idea

@Ian Michael Grumby

"In fact her profile was filled with a couple red flags."

From that statement either you're doing a very poor job at exaggerating or her profile was very small.

[Allan George Dyer]

Re: @AC ... Yes, good idea

@Ian Michael Gumby - "The investigation found that the guy was radicalized by his wife"

Really? Wikipedia says they both ahd become radicalized before meeting each other: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_San_Bernardino_attack#Motive

Sure, slurping social media data at the borders might give some short-term successes, but it's going to generate a lot more false positives, people just mouthing off a bit, especially if whoever is running it decides that insulting Trump == terrorist. The avalanche of false positives will make identifying and following up the important ones harder - weren't the Boston bombers flagged more than once as "of interest", but dropped through the cracks?

Long term, this will produce far more people who perceive that they are being unjustly targetted, and a small proportion of those will take further steps in radicalization while making sure not to do them on facebook.

[Conall O]

Re: @AC ... Yes, good idea

The ends do not justify the means.

[fajensen]

Re: @AC ... Yes, good idea

Had they scanned her social media account during the immigration process,

What about After? According to Snowden and Wikileaks "they" suck up Everything - but - are too retarded or overwhelmed to do anything useful with any of it, except AFTER he fact, where failure is rewarded with more resources.

Maybe "they" even let terrorist roam and terrorise freely - because, failure brings in more powers and bennies for much less Effort than actual Work!?

[FordPrefect]

Re: Yes, good idea

The problem is most people have social media accounts that are or have previously been linked and with a bit of googling even if you severed the link between LinkedIn and twitter there is a good chance google will link your accounts together again.

[TRT]

Absolutely uncalled for...

There's no need to post negative tweets about President Trump. Just simply retweeting him is saying enough.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Absolutely uncalled for...

It's better to have people *think* you're a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt....

[Richard Crossley]

Re: Absolutely uncalled for...

Some advice some political leaders would do well to heed.

[Steve the Cynic]

Re: Absolutely uncalled for...

"Some advice some political leaders would do well to heed"

I think you meant to say "*ALL* political leaders" in there.

[Phil W]

Re: Absolutely uncalled for...

I dunno, Justin Trudeau seems to be doing pretty well on his own.

[Pascal]

Re: Absolutely uncalled for...

"I dunno, Justin Trudeau seems to be doing pretty well on his own."

This is a gross oversimplification but...

Trump got elected because he ran a popularity contest out of his reality TV "star" status / outsider status.

Trudeau got elected because he's cool and popular on social media.

More than ever voters basically make decisions based on popularity contests, this does not bode well for the future of mankind :)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Absolutely uncalled for...

Trump didn't get elected because of the TV shows. The TV shows themselves had nothing to do with it. However, people CHOOSING TO BE UNINFORMED and make statements claiming that the TV show had anything to do with it are a one of the reasons he DID get elected.

[Avatar of They]

Re: Absolutely uncalled for...

Then how did 'Cruella deville' herself get elected Pry Minister of UK? Oh wait she wasn't elected, good point.

[BongoJoe]

Re: Absolutely uncalled for...

Then how did 'Cruella deville' herself get elected Pry Minister of UK? Oh wait she wasn't elected, good point

Humour me. Name one Prime Minister who had been elected into the role.

[Mark 78]

Re: Absolutely uncalled for...

<quote>It's better to have people *think* you're a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt....</quote>

Homer's Brain: What does that mean? Better say something or they'll think you're stupid.

[Anonymous Coward]

"However, some have commented that the reminder reflects an increasingly draconian and closed social media policy - following the more open attitude encouraged by the likes of the Government Digital Service."

This isn't about social media policy, it's about compliance with the civil service code, which is pretty clear on these matters.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

And if you are nice about him you too might get paid 600K for 1 day a week while still keeping your government job - that's the "code"

[Alt C]

This - its also worth noting that dissing your employer in your private social media is a very grey area within the civil service code and will almost certainly be against the department social media policy.

However I don't see how re-posting anti-Trump tweets on your home social media would get you in trouble, its not like disliking Trump brings the civil service into disrepute.

Still best not to do it on the official home office tweets and blogs though - those are only for puff pieces.

[Anonymous Coward]

I guess it's that Trumpet is the President of the United States of America that's the issue. The man is a tosser without a doubt but whilst he's in office a negative tweet is a criticism of the state even if it is directed at the man. Home Office, government, diplomacy etc. AC because CS Code.

[Anonymous Coward]

The above AC has this correct.

It's exactly the same reason as to why civil servants shouldn't be posting negative (or overly positive) posts about our domestic political "leaders" either. One day they may be called into acting in support of them. Having gone on public record with published comments criticising them and their policies can put he civil service as an institution on difficult ground. Impartiality goes all ways.

[John Brown (no body)]

"However I don't see how re-posting anti-Trump tweets on your home social media would get you in trouble, its not like disliking Trump brings the civil service into disrepute."

Unless said person is visiting the US and their social media is examined along with their other details such as current employer.

[Ian Michael Gumby]

"However I don't see how re-posting anti-Trump tweets on your home social media would get you in trouble, its not like disliking Trump brings the civil service into disrepute."

Unless said person is visiting the US and their social media is examined along with their other details such as current employer.

There are a couple of issues that are being conflated.

1) On the internet, things are remembered for a long time. So while you have your first amendment freedoms, you may want to think before you post. Or use an alias.

2) DHS using your social media profiles to question you when you isn't a bad thing. In a prior post I talked about being able to flag a potential terrorist. There is evidence that during the screening process, social media posts were not considered. If they were... it would have been easier to spot and deny entrance to would be bad guys.

3) What would cause you to be flagged in the first place?

Saying negative anti-Trump things? Hardly unless they were actual threats. (He's the sitting POTUS so threatening him is a crime.) But saying something like "I don't like Trump because he lies and claims that his plants are bugged ..." Or something even sillier, isn't going to get you in trouble.

The whole idea is that when they swipe your biometric passport, they can pull up your social media accounts. Actually they would have pulled up the profiles prior to your boarding or even while on the flight.

Its a non issue. If they want to pull up my social media accounts, all they would find is my LinkedIn profile.

There's nothing there that would be of interest to anyone from any country.

[Anonymous Coward]

Or to summarise, "nothing to fear -> nothing to hide".

No.

[Allan George Dyer]

@Ian Michael Gumby - "On the internet, things are remembered for a long time. So while you have your first amendment freedoms, you may want to think before you post. Or use an alias."

Are you planning to tweet that to Trump on his twitter account too? If you can get through to him, it might save everyone a lot of trouble in the long run.

"If they want to pull up my social media accounts, all they would find is my LinkedIn profile."

And your Reg account. This is social, isn't it?

"There's nothing there that would be of interest to anyone from any country."

Including your support for "extreme vetting" and other anti-democratic opinions? Or you being a self-confessed pizza snob? In some countries, you're being American and technical (groking 6502, 6800, 8080A along with other languages) could flag you as a serious threat to the local Great Firewall.

[NorthernCoder]

They should stick to the facts

...the alternative ones, that is.

[Justicesays]

Clarification required

What's their policy on non-home office staff stating that they are home office staff and *then* negging on Trump?

[VinceH]

Re: Clarification required

"Oh, sorry - did I say I work for the Home Office? My mistake, I meant to say I work from my home-office."

[Phil W]

Re: Clarification required

Perhaps go for the ambiguous "Home Office Worker"

[Nick Ryan]

Ban?

So this is really a ban on posting about trump then? After all, it's all but impossible to find anything positive to say about him...

(see icon)

[ArrZarr]

Re: Ban?

I mean, you intended it as a joke but it's pretty much spot on.

Should I laugh of cry?

[DavCrav]

Re: Ban?

"He has invaded far fewer countries than the previous Republican president."

Fake News! In the first 50 days in office, Trump invaded Yemen. I don't think Bush invaded anyone in the first 50 days in office.

You have to give Trump time, he's only just got his feet under the desk. Then we'll see how many countries he can invade...

[O RLY]

Re: Ban?

Did Trump really invade Yemen? I mean, if it's continuing the policy of military intervention of GW Bush and Barack Obama in Yemen, can it really be said to be Trump's invasion?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Ban?

Depends on your definition of "invade". Given how Trump during the campaign stated the 'real' unemployment rate "was 25-30%, and some claim as high as 42%" (since only 58% of the entire US population from 1 day old to 110 years old is employed, the remaining 42% can be considered unemployed if you include all those freeloading infants and centenarians) and specifically told Shawn Spicer what to say when the new monthly figures came out with 4.7% unemployment, down from Obama's pre-election low of 4.9%.

A reporter asked if Trump still considers the reported unemployment numbers fake, and Spicer say "President Trump asked me to give a specific answer if this question is asked. The unemployment numbers were fake before, but now they're real".

So I'm pretty sure Trump would claim that Bush and Obama invaded Yemen, but he had not.

[JetSetJim]

It's a personal account, FFS

Barring divulging sensitive/commercial information, I see no reason to regulate a persons usage of a personal account to say anything on Twitter. About half the Twitter users on the planet are saying "Trump's a twat" in various guises on Twitter, I'm sure, and he's certainly supplying plenty of evidence to back them up.

[Pascal Monett]

Wrong approach

I don't know about England, but in France when you are working for the Government, you have a duty of restraint. The fact that the account is personal makes no difference to the fact that, as a Government worker/contractor, what you say reflects partly on the Government you work for.

It is in that sense that I completely understand the Home Office's action.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Wrong approach

"you have a duty of restraint. "

Most UK employment contracts will have something along the lines of "actions which may bring the company into disrepute" which can be used against an employee if their actions are carried out in a way where they are linked to an employer.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Wrong approach

"The Home Office is more than capable of bringing itself into disrepute as such please refrain from doing so on your social media accounts" - Home Office contract, page 2, section 6, paragraph 8.

[Hans 1]

Re: Wrong approach

Oui, tout a fait!

I wonder why this is even news ? You are a civil servant, you cannot openly ridicule a civil servant or politician of another nation ... you are free to do it anonymously, that is another matter ...

I just saw a Home Office tweet on the number of child refugees they let in in 2016, the home office is very proud to be able to claim that a nation of 60 million people let in less than 9000 child refugees in 2016 ... I thought there was some other nation which has a population of approx 80 million and had left 1 million refugees in, France, I think, is sort of in-line with UK (I think 1.5 times as many), however, and this is a big one, France feels ashamed of the poor performance ... UK, on the other hand, is proud to have helped!

The reality distortion field in the UK must be really strong!

[SkippyBing]

Re: It's a personal account, FFS

I think the issue is that in their profile they say who they work for. If you're going to post something your employer might not like make sure there's no link to who that is in your profile.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: It's a personal account, FFS

as long as they remove all references to their job from their social media profiles and activities, there should only be one remaining problem - you probably want to avoid expressing your opinion on issues where you have information that is not available to the general public

[Steve Davies 3]

HMG become more like Lower Trumpton every day

Upper Trumpton is naturally inside the DC Beltway but also includes buildings in Manhattan and Florida and other places. These are easily found by the US Version of Trumpton namely, Trump Towers etc.

Postman Donald (where's me Troosers) Trump will be on hand to greet visitors personally.

You can tell it is him by the rabid over use of the words

Wall, Tremendous and Fantastic.

[kain preacher]

Yes because people love being told what they can do in there personal life bye the government. Call me crazy but this just might have the opposite effect.

[Alt C]

well private companies have been putting constraints on what people can say about them in their own time for donkeys years so no need to go all anti-gov on this one. Indeed companies have sacked employees for things they've posted on personal accounts even if there is no connection to the business

[Buzzword]

> it applies to all staff including contractors and temporary staff

Don't worry: according to other articles, the contractors will all be gone by 6th April.

[dave 93]

Don't use the words Donald Trump

There are plenty of other instantly recognisable synonyms based on his appearance, policies and moral compass. Just sayin'

[Mephistro]

Re: Don't use the words Donald Trump

Just to clarify, are the following examples valid?

Appearances: Cheeto, The Rug...

Policies: Herr Trumpf, Overtwatterführer...

Moral compass: mmmhhh.. The Shitfan?

Am I getting it right?

[Tom 64]

Re: Don't use the words Donald Trump

I prefer Tronald Dump. Seems appropriate somehow.

Where is El Reg's dump icon?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Don't use the words Donald Trump

Don the Fart and his Fart Followers.

[Pat 11]

Only negative ones?

Surely a rational thing to do is to bar all tweets positive or negative. Otherwise it looks like you support him. Surely the HO don't support him do they?

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Only negative ones?

"Surely the HO don't support him do they?"

With Brexit looming, there's not a lot of choice. We need trading partners, even ones who know we are desperate and will take advantage of that during negotiations.

[Kiwi]

Re: Only negative ones?

We need trading partners, even ones who know we are desperate and will take advantage of that during negotiations.

Couple of Ozzie friends of mine spoke on their trade deal with the US a few years back.

One said "We wanted a trade deal with the US, we got one, now we want OUT of the trade deal with the US". Other one just said "we weren't careful what we wished for".

Having a trade deal with the US is like daily getting mugged and raped by the homeless guy down the road. You lose everything you have and still get screwed, and the who experience stinks.

(Maybe when they're done rebuilding the country post-trump they might be a much better trading partner, but for now I wish NZ gubbermint would stop trying to suck up to the US and look for much better and closer trade opportunities, other countries who would love NZ produce and would pay a premium rather than saying how bad NZ produce is for their economy and looking for ways to further shaft us)

[Lars]

Re: Only negative ones?

@Kiwi. If it was about a trade deal, the way normal people think about a trade deal. But it's not. it's about everything else too, like with the TTIP.

Think about it for a moment, is there any country in this world that does not sell their products in the EU (including the UK), now I am sure perhaps there could be some island in the Pacific, perhaps a country in Africa that has nothing to export.

And then there are people who claim we have no trade, no products from China, the USA and so forth, but just believe me, I have seen American cars on the street, Chines tools in my home.

And then there are, of course, Brits who think nobody wants to sell them anything because of the EU, totally forgetting that trade is both import and export where importing stuff is just nice and easy while again exporting stuff is about actually producing something somebody wants to buy, and that the EU has, the bastards, prevented the UK to produce wonderful stuff for 40 years and now the whole world is waiting for all that new wonderful stuff and Boris is forced to answer the phone all the time. There was that time, in the past, when trade was about importing for "one" and then exporting that same stuff for "ten", are May & co still living in those times.

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't use Twitter

Good advice for HO staffers and everyone else too. Nobody gives a rat's ass about your whining. You're wasting your time and asking for trouble.

[Arctic fox]

That was absolutely amazing!

"Good advice for HO staffers and everyone else too. Nobody gives a rat's ass about your whining. You're wasting your time and asking for trouble."

One of the best send-ups of a Trump tweet that I have seen so far. What, you meant it? Oh dear.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: That was absolutely amazing!

Indeed, one of these days it's going to backfire on him. Hopefully killing Twitter in the process.

[Pen-y-gors]

Free speech?

I don't think the Govt can have it both ways - either staff don't mention who they work for and so should have the same rights of free speech and criticising nutters as everyone else, or they say who they work for and stick to the official line.

Or have two personal accounts of course.

[Your alien overlord - fear me]

A. Stating in LinkedIn you're working for the Home Office is now unacceptable.

B. I've already dissed The RugHead on Twitter (or wherever), does that mean I now can't get a job at the Home Office, even as a temp?

[Anonymous Coward]

Tell the White House...

If only someone would tell the White House

to stop posting tweets that make Donald Trump look like a narcissistic moron.

[hi_robb]

God bless America

And free speech...

[TRT]

Re: God bless America

Oh the speech is free enough, but have you seen how much libel costs?

[PaulFrederick]

Re: God bless America

Speech is free. Consequences are based on what you've said though.

[Anonymous Coward]

Pretty funny!

In the history of the alliance between the Brits and the Americans, has anyone tried to suggest or enforce something like this?

This isn't flattering for Trump that someone needed to make this an order. Were the negative comments that prevalent they felt this response was necessary?

Does someone not understand human nature.. or did someone anti-Trump suggested this response?

[Anonymous Coward]

The US Department of Homeland Security is currently using software to scan social media accounts of people visiting the United States (with a low "match confidence" tool, as it transpired). This is just one of Donald Trump's “extreme vetting” methods in order to try and prevent possible terrorists from entering. .

So... if you tweet negative things about Trump you MUST be a terrorist?

[Anonymous Coward]

So is this that special relationship that I hear about when comes to the UK and the US ?

[harmjschoonhoven]

So it is OK

to tweet The noble Mr. Donald J. Trump is an honourable man. He always speaks the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Free after Julius Caesar Act 3, Scene 2

[TRT]

Re: So it is OK

We all know what you get when a Trump follows through.

[Camilla Smythe]

I guess...

They will have to move on to expressing the equally unassailable view that our own Denizens are a bunch of clueless self serving wankers instead.

[jblob]

Press Office

Have a guess how many of the above comments are actually planted by the press office?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re. comments

All of them?

BTW ROFLMAO re. Drumpftwattenfuhrer..

In retrospect maybe sending that congratulatory Email to President-Elect Hillary before actually checking the results on election day probably wasn't a good idea.

Is the "Parallel Universe Defense" actually valid?

[Chris King]

Re: Re. comments

Is the "Parallel Universe Defense" actually valid?

Only if the tweet was posted by your evil parallel universe self, usually identifiable by a goatee or a Hulk Hogan 'tache.

Then again, with Brexit and Trump, we may have already fallen into an evil parallel universe.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Re. comments

[citation needed]

In other news, my time device is working well. For some reason I can't get any useful data past 21/02/18 at 7.02 am, any ideas why? Looks normal up to this date, no major events so this could be an anomaly in the system.

The worrying thing is that this is just under a year from now, should I sell my stocks in D-wave and Intel now and evacuate to the Alpha Site sooner rather than later?

Not sure if the event horizon is actually due to something serious eg an ELE or just a problem elsewhere, my device seems to be unique as someone else operating one anywhere on Earth would generate detectable interference.

[Tom Paine]

The moral is

...Keep your work and personal online existences compartmentalised. they're not saying "Don't saybrude things about Trump", they're saying "Don't say rude things about Trump from an account where you identify yourself as a HO employee", which seems reasonable to me. All my employers have had similar policies for the last decade or more.

(For the avoidance of doubt I think he's a dangerous, corrupt lunatic with fascistic tendencies and a menace to the world every second he's in power )

[jblob]

Re: The moral is

are you sure?

I thought the fuss was precisely because they didn't want people critiquing Trump even from their own personal accounts, in their own time, from their own phones .. even if you were a contractor.

[the Jim bloke]

Only idiots believe whats on social media

Sadly there are a lot of idiots in positions of power.

Trump has demonstrated that posting on twitter and possessing credibility are mutually exclusive.

[Anonymous Coward]

Trump is descended from royalty...

...William of Orange.

[Anonymous Coward]

Who uses their real name?

How do they determine the trolls from the real workers?

If I were to say that: "Trump is a vacuous twat", how does one know whether I work for the HO or Bob's Discount Tyres?

[WatAWorld]

It is plain common sense

It is plain common sense not to criticise regulators, clients or customers while indicating your employer.

If you mention your employer, if you mention your professional association, you are dragging them into it.

Much better to have a separate personal account for political comment, preferably using a 'pen name' (pseudonym) that doesn't mention any employer or any professional credentials.

[Tom 64]

What year is it again?

Perhaps I should go fish out my calendar from 1984 and just flip it back to January every new year.

[martinusher]

Bit difficult to not post negative things about Trump

For someone who's only been in office for 50 days he's unleashed a shitstorm of either pointless stupidity or total self-serving material so its really difficult to post anything positive about him. Obviously you shouldn't be posting anything as an official or employee or even using your organization's computers but outside of work -- well, he's fair game. I'm one of the sizable majority of Americans who didn't vote for him; having got stuck with him I was prepared to cut him a bit of slack but his actions both before and since inauguration have been so ridiculous that he deserves everything he's getting, and then some. He's an embarrassment. I'm just pleased that all those low information types in the Heartland who put him over the top in the Electoral College are now so screwed thanks to the proposed healthcare changes that they might think twice about what they're doing in the future.

What you should be careful of is organizing anything on social media that could be construed as unlawful. You have to assume that everything you put out on the Internet is public and be prepared to defend anything you write.

[Swarthy]

Re: Bit difficult to not post negative things about Trump

Dance like no-one is watching

Post on Social Media like it will be read in a deposition

[Haku]

So they're not allowed to call morons out on their bullshit?

That's a great policy.

A really really great policy.

[Gordon Pryra]

Trump May be a Dick

But throwing words like "draconian" around when talking about your employees wish for you not to rock the boat is a bit pathetic.

You have a choice of working for them or not. If you are willing to take the cash from an organisation that supports the start of this century's coming of Hitler then fine, don't then pretend to cry about lost "civil liberties" And if the extent of your civil engagement is social media then......

I hear the same crap when I work with people who are on peanuts filling the same role as myself, either cry about it and look foolish or man up and get a new job.

People bitch about not having choices, people HAVE choices, but generally those choices mean having to actually do more than a strongly worded 140 word character assassination.

[dave 81]

Another nail in the coffin

Of the late "free speech". God bless our benevolent overloads.

[Jason Hindle]

Sounds perfectly normal

As long as the guidance doesn't stretch to personal accounts (which should always come with the caveat "my views are my own").

[Updraft102]

"This is just one of Donald Trump's “extreme vetting” methods in order to try and prevent possible terrorists from entering."

Except that it started under Bush and was ramped up a great deal under Obama.

[Swarthy]

"Bush Started It"

That Bush started a lot of the erosion of liberty in the US, I cannot argue against.

That Obama turned up the heat (slowly, maybe getting to a 5 or 6), is also hard to argue against.

However, Trump, who spent his campaign decrying these abuses - and blaming them on Obama, has proceeded to crank the dial up to 11; and is looking for ways to add a 12.

[Willington]

Use quotation marks

They could always take Sean Spicer's advice and put everything in quotation marks. Apparently things in quotation marks don't mean what they say so, for example, tweeting 'Donald Trump is a "paedophile"' is acceptable.

[Lotaresco]

There are of course simple options

Like not using your real ID on social media and being careful to not provide information that links to you in real life. There's also the ultimate failsafe which is to make sure that you never set foot in the People's Republic of Trumpistan. I mean why would you? The place is awful and they grab every last bit of your personal data that they can when you enter the country.

Learn a European language and absorb a culture that doesn't need treating with heavy-duty antibiotics.

[adam payne]

A personal account is just that personal. As a person I am allowed to comment on things but I certainly wouldn't put company details in my profile.

[jblob]

comments missing the point

Lots of comments missing the damn point.

This is news because (1) they're trying to stop people's free speech in their own personal time, on their own personal accounts, using their own smartphones .. and (2) going out of their way to defend Trump.

[jzl]

I don't work for the Home Office

Donald Trump is a total and utter goat fucker.

[PaulFrederick]

Finally Trump is getting some respect, someplace. Now if only he could get some in the US.

[SeanC4S]

Trumpty Dumpty and Cruella De Vil. I guess the situation is partially defined by impetuous childish behavior.

[A Dark Germ]

Donald Duck

Donald Duck is a joke, why can we not just all say it.

You would not want him with your child.