EPA Social Campaign Illustrates Divide Between New Media and Old Politics

Critics of the EPA say the social media campaign violated federal lobbying laws.

This week, a multimedia campaign created in 2014 by the Environmental Protection Agency raised new questions about using digital/social in an era still governed by laws written when everyone used real old-school telephones to communicate.

As reported in The New York Times, the EPA used the hashtag #DitchTheMyth and the social media campaign management tool Thunderclap to promote a newly proposed rule to protect the quality of American drinking water.

Many agricultural groups opposed the specifics of the rule and claimed that it would empower the EPA to “regulate puddles.”

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