The General Services Administration is reportedly working on a validation tool to help people verify whether a Tumblr account, Facebook page or Twitter handle that purports to be from a federal official or agency is legitimate.
Sara Cope over at SocialFeds watched a preview of the tool called the Social Media Registry at an event hosted by DigitalGov University and described it here.
Cope is an information technology official at the Veterans Affairs Department.
The number of government-sponsored social media accounts has ballooned in recent years, leaving federal agencies and officials vulnerable to imitation, either by admirers or detractors.
The social media registry will help reporters, researchers and others ensure they're dealing with a credible source. It will be less helpful, though, at combatting the broad effects of misinformation spread by social media imitators and hackers who tend to prey on people who don't double check their news sources.
Joseph Marks
Joseph Marks covers government technology issues, social media, Gov 2.0 and global Internet freedom for Nextgov. He previously reported on federal litigation and legal policy for Law360 and on local, state and regional issues for two Midwestern newspapers. He also interned for Congressional Quarterly’s Homeland Security section and the Associated Press’s Jerusalem Bureau. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s in international affairs from Georgetown.
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