The Twitter account of the Department of Social Welfare and Department was recently used to share and like posts related to Korean boy group BtoB, content which is obviously outside the agency’s mandate.
The retweets and liked posts had since been deleted. However, some users were able to take screenshots of it and shared it online.
Anuginagawaniu DSWD
Posted by Malacañang Events and Catering Services on Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Fangirling si DSWD over #yooksungjae and #BTOB 😂😂😂@BTOB_6SJ @OFFICIALBTOB #육성재 #비투비 pic.twitter.com/LM26HcJRxp
— Pync (@uglypyncElbanb1) July 18, 2019
The screenshots showed that a social media employee from DSWD shared and liked posts from Twitter page BTOBStory, a fan page of the group. The exact time of these activities was not indicated.
One of the snapshots showed a photo of one the band’s members and the other one showed a video clip of the septet appearing on a show in South Korea.
So far, there’s no official statement from the agency about this brief social media mishap.
BTOB or Born to Beat is composed of seven members Yook Sungjae, Lee Minhyuk, Jung II-hoon, Peniel Shin, Seo Eunkwang, Im Hyun-sik and Lee Chang-sub.
They debut in 2012 under Cube Entertainment.
Government use of social media
The Department of Information and Communications Technology crafted guidelines last year for government agencies on the proper use of social media.
“We are encouraging the use of social media for our advocacy, programs and policies. We need to strike a balance on how to use social media to improve productivity and governance and at the same time taking care of public trust and upholding public interest,” said Maria Teresa Magno-Garcia, a director at the National ICT Governance Service.
The Administrative Order on Social Media Use for Government was then enacted to “guide government agencies and employees on the responsible use of social media and ensure that such will redound to global competitiveness, performance accountability, shared governance, organizational and personal effectiveness, and service excellence.”
Based on its provisions, there are seven types of blacklisted content or the ones that should not be posted.
- Blackmail/insulting content
- Pornographic content
- Malicious content
- Unrelated information, jokes, or promotions
- Unauthorized posting of copyrighted material
- Suspicious links and viruses
- Opinions
In this case, posts about BTOB may fall under unrelated information given that they have no links to the daily responsibilities of the social welfare department.
