The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) engaged in “covert propaganda” and violated federal law when it used social media for unauthorized publicity or propaganda purposes to garner support for the Waters of the U.S. Rule (WOTUS), according to a ruling this week by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The investigation request into this issue came from the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
Federal agencies are allowed to promote their own policies, but may not engage in propaganda, defined as covert activity intended to influence the American public. They also are not allowed to use federal resources to conduct grass-roots lobbying by urging the American public to contact Congress to take a certain kind of action on pending legislation.
“Specifically, EPA violated the publicity or propaganda prohibition through its use of a platform know as Thurderclap that allows a single message to be shared across multiple Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr accounts at the same time,” according to GAO. “EPA engaged in covert propaganda when the agency did not identify EPA’s role as the creator of the Thunderclap message to the target audience.”
GAO also charged that EPA violated anti-lobbying provisions by using hyperlinks to external Web pages in an EPA blog post. “Both of the external Web pages led to appeals to the public to contact Congress in support of the WOTUS rule,” according to GAO
An EPA official disputed the finding, saying “we use social medial tools just like all organization to stay connected and inform people across the country about our activities,” Liz Purchia, an agency spokesperson, said in a statement. “At no point did EPA encourage the public to contact Congress or any state legislature.”
WOTUS had been adopted by the EPA, but implementation of the rule was suspended nationally in October by a federal appeals court after opponents of the plan challenged it. The omnibus bill being consider today fails to prohibit funding for EPA’s and the Army Corps’ controversial WOTUS rule.
The general counsel at GAO has advised EPA to report the violations and the costs associated with the violation of the law to the president and Congress as required by the Anti-deficiency Act. While the GAO findings are unlikely to lead to civil or criminal penalties, general counsels across the federal government are likely to take note of the GAO ruling.
