The Government Is Shut Down. Government Social Media Accounts Are Decidedly Not.

On the first day of the government shutdown, the Department of Homeland Security put out a notice saying its website would not be actively managed and information would not be updated.

Its X and Instagram accounts are going strong.

DHS has posted more than 200 times to X in the month since the shutdown began. It’s posted calls to join Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It’s shared photos of immigrants who the department says are living in the U.S. illegally. It scolds news outlets for their coverage of ICE and lawmakers for their comments. Each week, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Media Relations Lauren Bis calls out “fake news hoaxes” in a video posted to the account. “If you lie or smear our brave men and women of @ICEgov law enforcement, you WILL be debunked,” the caption reads.

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DHS and several other federal agencies have kept their social media accounts up and running despite the shutdown, deeming these functions critical to operations. In a shutdown marked with highly partisan messaging from official government channels that ethics experts warn could violate the Hatch Act, social media is a key tool — and the Trump administration is making the most of it.

A DHS spokesperson told NOTUS that social media use is “tied to DHS’s core mission of defending the homeland” and “enables the department to share real-time public safety alerts, maintain public trust critical for national security, and counter misinformation from media outlets.”

Its social media activity during the last government shutdown, which lasted from Dec. 22, 2018, to Jan. 25, 2019, looked very different. DHS posted fewer than 10 times to X, then Twitter, during that period, and most of the posts were public service announcements telling people to report suspicious activity.

While some agencies, such as the Veterans Affairs Department, have not been as active as DHS, they have taken to social media to blame Democrats for the shutdown and further the GOP’s talking points. The department’s X account has mostly been reposting interviews of Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins saying Democrats shut down the government over “unreasonable demands.”

Last go-around, the department posted frequently, with its focus on career fairs, services for veterans and local feel-good stories.

“Social media is critically important to VA’s operations, especially given the legacy’s media’s inability to report honestly about the Trump Administration,” VA press secretary Pete Kasperowicz wrote in an email. “Unfortunately, the Democrats’ government shutdown is limiting VA’s use of social media along with a number of other VA services.”

The Department of Health and Human Services has reposted its deputy secretary’s posts of people he says are unauthorized immigrants using Medicaid. The posts are accompanied by the hashtag #MorningMedicaidMugshot and push the GOP’s message that Democrats shut down the government to give free health care to people living in the country illegally.

Democrats have made the extension of Affordable Care Act premium subsidies a central issue during the government shutdown. Immigrants without authorization to live in the U.S. are not eligible for the subsidies.

The politicized posts show a sharp distinction in how HHS used social media during the last shutdown, when it mainly posted flu vaccine reminders and about symptoms for different illnesses.

Most of the digital team working for the Department of Defense is furloughed, Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson told NOTUS in an email statement. During the past 30 days, DOD’s official X account and its rapid response counterpart appear to be carrying on with posting about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s activities.

“Even while operating at a limited capacity during the Democrat’s shutdown, the Department of War will continue to communicate what matters and keep the public informed, as its limited staffing will allow,” Kingsley wrote.

The Department of Agriculture had not posted since the government shut down but shared a post on Tuesday warning that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program would run out of funds in four days. The department did not explain its protocol on website and social media use during a shutdown.

Several agencies, along with the White House, launched Bluesky accounts as the shutdown went into its third week, according to WIRED, which reported the administration had been considering opening official accounts in the left-leaning platform since at least February.

The Education Department has only posted since the shutdown to tell its followers to follow the agency on Bluesky. DHS, the Department of State, the Department of the Interior and HHS are some of the other agencies that have launched Bluesky accounts.

An email from NOTUS to an Education Department spokesperson was returned with an automatic reply saying, “Due to the lapse in appropriations, we are currently in furlough status. We will respond to emails once government functions resume.”