Have you ever thought about tweeting against or in favor of a political candidate?
Well, if you haven’t actually done it and are thinking about it, then make sure you know whether or not, you can get fired for this act of yours.
The special counsel’s office has recently announced a list of FAQ about the Hatch Act for all the federal employees with the next year almost here. The main talking point of the document among other matters was the use of social networks by the federal officers. The statement included the crimes that could be involved when an officer is found in violation of the Hatch act while posting on Facebook, Twitter or any other social network for that matter.
A sample question that was asked in the document was that whether a federal officer should talk about politics and the related activities on social media networks or not. The answer is positive but it has some prohibitions hidden within it.
According to the hatch act, the employees are prohibited from taking part in political activity of any sort when they are within the premises of their offices. Also, you can’t refer to a specific person by their designations or positions. Also, adding to the political campaigns or making any other contributions in the political domain is also strictly prohibited. This means you can’t yourself engage in spreading the work or provide any links to people to do it. That being said, an officer can go ahead and accept any invitation that might be made to a fundraising event by a politician.
The document also included other aspects of internet usage. The officers are also prevented from making use of the government provided email address to make any sort of political dealing or contribution. For instance, you can receive a political email while you are at your workplace and forward it to your other id but dispatching an email from your own government id is strictly prohibited.
It’s recommended for all the employees to at-least go through the document once themselves.
