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Other agencies have also been put on ice over what they are allowed to share with the public, among them the Environmental Protection Agency

This is a sinister development.

Trump has gagged the US Agriculture Department’s research arm from publicly sharing its work

Chase Purdy
Quartz, 24 Jan 2017
https://qz.com/893441/donald-trumps-administration-has-put-a-gag-on-the-usdas-agricultural-research-service/
[links to sources at the URL above]

An order of silence has been handed down to the US Department of Agriculture’s research arm, prohibiting the taxpayer-funded agency from releasing its work to the public, according to a report by BuzzFeed.

The message was handed down to the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) just days after Donald Trump was sworn into office as president. At least a couple of other agencies have been put on ice over what they are allowed to share with the public, among them the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Trump administration did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The National Park Service experienced something similar the day Trump was inaugurated: It was temporarily ordered to stop tweeting (paywall) after one of its Twitter accounts retweeted a side-by-side photo comparison of the National Mall, comparing the crowd size the day of Trump’s swearing-in to that of former president Barack Obama in 2009. The photos showed the former president’s crowds dwarfing the turnout for Trump, angering the new administration and setting off two days of ranting (paywall).