U.S. agency employees refuse to be muzzled by Trump administration

A group of National Park Service employees has created an "unofficial resistance" Twitter account in opposition to the Trump administration's directive to the agency to cease social media posts.

• Less than hour after inauguration, Trump publishes energy policy to revive coal industry

​The spat began when the U.S. National Parks Service, which runs the National Mall in Washington retweeted a post from the New York Times that compared Trump's inauguration numbers with that of Barack Obama's in 2009. The image showed significantly fewer attendees at Trump's inauguration.

Trump bristled at the comparison — as well as the millions who turned out in Saturday's Women's March across the U.S. and the world. 

As a result, the Interior Department briefly suspended its official Twitter accounts. Shortly after they were reinstated the same day, the National Parks issued an apology. It is believed that a former employee with access to the account posted the tweet.

​On Friday, less than an hour after Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th U.S. president, his administration issued its "America First Energy Plan," which not only outlined an effort to revive coal, but also seemed to target the Environmental Protection Agency  (EPA), an agency which he said on his campaign trail that he planned to eliminate.

On Tuesday, the administration issued emails to EPA staff banning press releases, blog updates or posts to the agency's social media accounts. As of Wednesday afternoon, the last tweet sent by the agency was on January 19, a day before Trump took office.

On Tuesday, following a similar edict by the administration, the Badlands National Parks Twitter account began tweeting various scientific facts.

However, the tweets were soon deleted. It's unknown who deleted them.

There is an effort to organize a Scientists' March on Washington, similar to the Women's March that took place on Saturday.

The situation in the U.S. bears a striking resemblance to the assertion by Canadian scientists that they were muzzled under the Harper administration.