The United States Office of Government Ethics (OGE) is an independent agency within the executive branch of the U.S. Federal Government which is responsible for directing executive branch policies relating to the prevention of conflict of interest on the part of Federal executive branch officers and employees. Under the Ethics in Government Act, this agency was originally part of the Office of Personnel Management from 1978 until it separated in 1989.

On November 20, 2016, in a rare occurrence, the OGE tweeted to President-elect Donald Trump about his decisions about divesting in his business to avoid conflicts of interest. Here are a few of those tweets:

On December 16, 2016, I sent a FOIA request for e-mails to/from certain OGE employees to search the keyword TWITTER to see what was being talked about. Those employees I requested searched were:

Walter M. Shaub, Jr.
Dale A. Christopher
Barbara A. Mullen-Roth
Lori Kelly
Heather A. Jones
Seth Jaffe
Elaine Newton
Vincent J. Salamone
Monica Ashar
Rachel Dowell
Leigh J. Francis
Patrick Lightfoot
Kimberly Sikora Panza
Christopher Swartz
Rodrick Johnson
Emory Rounds
James T. Cooper
Edith M. Brown
Michael Hanson
Danny Lowery
Timothy Mallon
Leonard Upson
Shelley K. Finlayson
Diana J. Veilleux
Brandon Steele
Heidi Fischer
Elizabeth Horton
Jennifer Matis

On December 30, 2016, I received a final response.

Document Archive

 Office of Government Ethics E-mails Mentioning “Twitter” – November 30, 2016 [367 Pages, 21.3MB]

The post Office of Government Ethics E-mails Mentioning “Twitter” – November 30, 2016 first appeared on The Black Vault.

On July 2, 2014, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) posted a tweet relating to UFOs, which was, needless to say, fairly controversial.

It read:

Remember reports of unusual activity in the skies in the ’50s? That was us. #U2Week #UFODAY http://t.co/SOiapRR0MX pic.twitter.com/dOQjQ6ePxr

— CIA (@CIA) July 2, 2014

I thought it would be interesting to see what exactly went in to the creation of this tweet. I mean, as The Black Vault can easily prove, this was definitely NOT the truth – so how could they justify posting it? There was no feasible way the CIA could account for, and be responsible for, every legitimate UFO sighting from the 1950s.

So, I filed a FOIA request to see what research was done, how they corresponded about it, and what their thought process was.  I mean, let’s face it, if you make a claim like that, you should back it up, right?

Well, to my surprise, there wasn’t any proof or any sign of any legitimate research.

As these documents below show, one guy/gal had an idea, another guy/gal said, “I love it. Good to go.”  And that was the extent of it.

Document Archive

 CIA Tweet: Remember reports of unusual activity in the skies in the ’50s? That was us. #U2Week #UFODAY [4 Pages, 1.1MB]

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The post CIA Tweet: Remember reports of unusual activity in the skies in the ’50s? That was us. #U2Week #UFODAY first appeared on The Black Vault.

Use of social media has become prevalent among Federal executive branch employees and agencies. The U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) is aware that agency ethics officials have an interest in understanding how the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Executive Branch Employees (Standards of Conduct), 5 C.F.R. part 2635, apply to the use of social media. This interest is reflected in the increased volume of questions that OGE receives from various agencies seeking advice in this area.

As an initial matter, the Standards of Conduct do not prohibit executive branch employees from establishing and maintaining personal social media accounts. As in any other context, however, employees must ensure that their social media activities comply with the Standards of Conduct and other applicable laws, including agency supplemental regulations and agency-specific policies. To assist employees and agency ethics officials in this endeavor, OGE is providing the following guidance regarding issues that agency ethics official have frequently raised concerning employees’ obligations under the Standards of Conduct when using social media.

 The Standards of Conduct as Applied to Personal Social Media Use for Office of Government Ethics (OGE) Employees [36 Pages, 3.2MB]

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/oge/OGESocialMedia.pdf

The post Office of Government Ethics (OGE) Employee Use of Social Network Accounts first appeared on The Black Vault.