Trump bans EPA employees from giving social media updates.

[Scoobes]

Lawlight said:

Scoobes said:

They can't post anything work related on social media, so those social media groups would count, effectively eliminating discussion on these sites. 

And science is a growingly collaborative endeavour. Social media sites are an instanteous way to bounce ideas off from scientists around the world. Of course that happens in the smaller groups within a university or company but it has far greater reach on social media. Conferences/sympossiums are also great but they take time to setup and are costly. 

But is there a ban on releasing the information? 

They can publish in Journals but that's hardly accessible to the wider public considering most people wouldn't know where to look to find these journals or the fact that many are still behind paywalls.

In the absence of a publicly open forum (social media in this case) for them to present their own research to the public (or correct misconceptions) they will be open to manipulation from the media and the administration to fit whatever narrative they wish with little to no chance of rebuttal from the scientist.

This sort of stuff is already happening and that's with scientists able to publicly complain of misrepresentaion let alone with a gagging order in place.