Governing in the age of social media

[GMDino]

Post over in another thread about Trump deleting tweets.

Which adds another layer to the problem.

As the article says:

Quote:Even after getting elected president, Mr. Trump has maintained personal control of his Twitter account. He has used his posts to skewer opponents, respond to critics and, he says, to communicate directly to voters without the filter of the news media.


“Twitter is a wonderful thing for me, because I get the word out,” he said in a March interview with Fox News. “I might not be here talking to you right now as president if I didn’t have an honest way of getting the word out.”


But if the president’s tweets are the Digital Age version of quips at the Rose Garden podium, what then are we to make of the deletions?


The president regularly deletes tweets with typos and misspellings. Less frequently, but not unheard-of, are erasures that pertain to more significant topics. In March, he posted and deleted a tweet that read: “Meeting with Generals at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. Very interesting!”


At least two government watchdog groups, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive, believe that when Mr. Trump deletes a tweet he may be breaking the law.


The groups filed a lawsuit in June against Mr. Trump and the Executive Office of the President, claiming that deleting social media posts violates the Presidential Records Act, a law that requires presidential communications to be archived. The groups are also suing to require White House staff members to archive material sent through encrypted messaging apps, such as WhatsApp and Signal.

Trump says this is his way to get his message out....then that would make them part of his Presidential record.  But he deletes the ones he doesn't like or when he wants to alter what he said if he was wrong or looked bad.