UK civil service tweet - done on purpose?

[CoRhona]

The official account of the civil service tweeted this earlier, widely thought to be about Boris' defence of Dominic Cimmings:

"Arrogant and offensive
Can you imagine having to work with these truth twisters?"

I think some poor sod has tweeted from the 'work' account instead of their own.

DH thinks it was done on purpose.

YABU - it most definitely was done on purpose

YANBU - Ooops...

What is the "Gross Misconduct" offence?

If the argument is that it brings the HCS into disrepute, then let's take that one to a tribunal and see who's doing that?

The guy actually tweeted saying he got fired and doesn;'t regret it, unless that was a Troll?

I'll try and find it.

That’s a fast firing!

comedian who later came clean and retracted it

It's a woman for sure. It's a womans words. She's my hero who ever she is (and an amazing fuck you resignation)

@SharonasCorona Quite....!

@Lordfrontpaw I'm aware of people who had their Twitter accounts hacked and turned into Arabic temporarily.

Networks and accounts get hacked all the time. Remember WannaCry? Just saying. As just one example that made it into the public domain. I'm aware of ONE civil service department/institution that has never had its security breached. And it's not GCHQ. Though I'm sure the security everywhere is absolutely water-tight these days. Or it will be after this.

It wasn't done via a scheduling tool, as it says Twitter for iPhone under the tweet. If it was a scheduling tool, the name of the program would be there.

I think it was definitely done deliberately. In my experience of comms, organisations are really bad at changing passwords regularly. So it's possible that it's a former staff member who still has access. In which case there would be no-one to sack!

@MysweetAudrina I’m ex-SCS and agree on all counts; though if it was done on a personal device it will take longer to trace. And agree that some departments have better security cultures than others.

I also agree that this massively undermines the civil service, no matter how much one may sympathise with the position. If one can’t work with a certain government, one resigns.

Not sure if legit

x-posted @MinteeFresh

Disregard!

Ironic that the person in the CS will be found and fired and DC gets to keep his job, despite doing a much more serious offence.

Love JK, she's such a star! (And the CS twitter hero too!)

Excellent point @TheThingWithFeathers. I think you’re right.

But if someone has left and used the passwords to gain access - that’s an offence surely? I assume you sign all sorts of agreements when you work for them.

While the identity of the hacker remains unknown, numerous users online wanted to claim to be the “hero” who sent the tweet. Comedian Alex Kitson attempted to claim the tweet as his own as a joke but then apologized after users online truly believed it was him. Out of respect for the actual hacker, who could be an employee who may find themselves soon without a job, Kitson tweeted, “I’ve deleted it now. Don’t want to take credit for someone else’s bravery.”

I think most people suspect this rogue tweeter may already have resigned, but if not then they need to be found and sacked which they will be expecting to happen.

Whoever tweeted this won’t keep their job and shouldn’t because of the vital need of the CS to maintain impartiality. I say that as someone who agrees with the spirit of what they tweeted. CS impartiality is paramount or the whole thing falls apart. I don’t think anyone’s said any different on this thread.

@Lordfrontpaw It would be in breach of the civil service social media policy (I'm assuming, I'm not a civil servant) but I don't think it would be a criminal offence. If it's a current employee, they'd be sacked but I'm not sure what (if any) comeback there would be against an ex-employee.

I don’t know much about the law but isn’t there a malicious communication act - I assume that would be hate mail but might cover misuse of am account?

@JKRowling I wrote that tweet. If you DM me, I'll send you my bank details.

It's certainly a Beautiful Thing

This Civil Service Code is pretty strict, and whilst the twitter poster would be in breach, Dominic Cummings will be too. I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere that he needs to comply with it.

@Lurkingforawhile Twitter types seem finally to have unearthed a copy of the Code of Conduct for Spads thanks to the DC briefing being announced...

This Civil Service Code is pretty strict, and whilst the twitter poster would be in breach, Dominic Cummings will be too. I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere that he needs to comply with it.

Dominic Cummings is a political appointee not a civil servant.

That person should come forward. A person with that kind of courage and initiative will not be unemployed ever.

NetofLemons
Do you have to give up your sense of humanity and responsibility if you sign up to be in civil service?

You have to sign the Offical Secrets Act, so same thing really.