Marines have been issued new guidelines on traversing Facebook’s social-media minefields.
Troops who want to stay out of hot water with their chain of command were told this month to avoid sharing political pages, although hitting the “like” button was acceptable.
“Because an active duty member may not engage in partisan political activity, the active duty member may not post or make direct links to a political party, partisan political candidate, campaign, group, or cause,” a message sent this month to troops read, Military.com reported Tuesday. “Such activity is akin to distributing literature on behalf of those entities, which is prohibited.”
The guidelines add that Marines may not invite others to “follow” political pages.
An extra warning was issued to refrain from posting any “large political sign, banner or post” on personal vehicles.
A long-standing prohibition against wearing a military uniform while issuing political endorsements was also reiterated.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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