'Rogue' Twitter accounts appear after U.S. agencies go dark

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NEWS) - It appears the effort to place a blackout on information at some government agencies is backfiring. It is unclear who is behind these rogue Twitter accounts, but it is clear a lot of people are interested in what they have to say.

So who got shut down? The Environmental Protection Agency, Agriculture Department, Interior Department, NASA, National Park Service are all government agencies that since Trump's inauguration were ordered not to post on social media, not to blog, or put content on websites, and to withhold press releases and not to talk to reporters.

The White House says the directives aren't coming from there.

With what some see as the new administration's war on science and facts, several rogue Twitter accounts are popping up and getting a lot of attention.

Once the EPA blackout was ordered, an account called @ungaggedepa appeared, posting news on environmental issues. It suddenly has 60,000 followers.

A @roguenasa account appeared doing the same. It has well over half a million followers now. Mind you these accounts were established days ago.

And what is more popular than the National Park Service, now blacked out? @altnatparkser, which has 1.17 million followers. The actual NPS Twitter account has a fraction of that number.

Pedram Tabibi, a lawyer specializing in social media cases, says rogue Twitter account holders are up again more than just the law. He says they could be subject to criminal prosecution.

Sometimes new administrations will order blackouts to get on the same page when it comes to controversial issues. But critics point out the new rules seem only to be targeting agencies dealing with environmental protection and scientific research.