“The Most Transparent Administration In History” Refuses to Say Who’s Behind Their Batshit Social Media: The way the U.S. government communicates online has shifted dramatically since Donald Trump returned to power on January 20. Before then, for instance, it wasn’t likely that the official White House Twitter/X account would tweet “Go woke, go broke” over a cartoon of the president meant to look like the (original, newly restored) Cracker Barrel logo. Nor was it likely that the Department of Homeland Security would share a constant string of cruel and gross tweets, jokes, and memes about deporting immigrants, repelling “invaders,” and thinly-veiled references to white supremacist talking points. (DHS recently shared a meme bearing the phrase “Which way, American man,” a barely-altered nod to Which Way, Western Man?, a book by white supremacist author William Gayley Simpson.) And while the White House, DHS, ICE and other agencies have thrown themselves into full-time shitposting, there is one question they don’t seem to want to answer: who, exactly, is behind these messages and memes? It’s unusual for Trump or his team to pass on an opportunity to brag. As disinformation researcher Joan Donovan recently pointed out to Mother Jones, the often overtly bigoted, xenophobic posts emanating from the current version of the U.S. government aren’t signed or attributed to anyone in particular. “They’re most effective when they’re authorless,” Donovan said, calling the posts “classic, textbook propaganda.” It’s unusual for the administration not to take any opportunity to brag about a perceived win, but that’s what they’ve done here: the White House hasn’t, for instance, appointed a Meme Czar or made someone available to boast about the aggressive new direction their social media strategy has taken. And as I learned this week, even asking who’s writing this stuff can elicit a very strange, remarkably sloppy, and weirdly personal response. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on who’s writing their posts or directing their social media strategy. But the Department of Homeland Security did. In response to an… https://ift.tt/d6eLPXH