State Department Discovers Facebook Pitfall

An Atlantic magazine writer points out that the popular trend of Facebook pages for federal agencies can lead to technical violations of the Hatch Act:

When I brought this to the attention of the State Department today, a spokesperson acknowledged the concern and said that the links to Biden's and Obama's campaign sites would be removed.

"Those pages were added right after the new administration began and even before the new White House was represented online," an official said via e-mail. "The intention was to merely make certain that the U.S. President and Vice-President were recognized, not any political affiliation. Now that we 'favorite' the White House page, we'll remove the pages you mentioned."

Thanks to the Government Executive's Tech Insider blog for the tip.