'Beijing Biden Is Not My President:' Troops' Social Media Posts in Spotlight After Capitol Riots
Airman 1st Class Sean Brinson wanted his peers to know that he didn't consider President Joe Biden a legitimate commander in chief.
In a post on the popular Facebook group Amn/NCO/SNCO Jan. 12, Brinson pledged to "continue to say 'Beijing Biden is not my president' for 4 years."
"End of god damned story," wrote Brinson, identified as being assigned to the 691st Cyberspace Operations Squadron, part of Air Combat Command located at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. "A letter from JCIS [sic] does not negate the events that stain this election, or answer glaring questions about selective application of law, something that IS constitutionally, ethically, morally, and LEGALLY deplorable."
Brinson has since deleted the post from the group's page.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff had made clear the military's position on the matter, condemning a pro-Trump mob's violent assault on the U.S. Capitol ahead of the inauguration and reminding troops that Biden would be their next commander in chief.
"The violent riot in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, was a direct assault on the U.S. Congress, the Capitol building, and our Constitutional process," the general and flag officers wrote.
Across social media, however, some U.S. service members have defiantly posted in support of former President Donald Trump, condemned Biden and spread political conspiracy theories. While the military has worked to discipline those whose public posts violate political speech rules and reminded troops to think before they share, some say recent events have exposed gaps in the services' social media policies and warn that order and discipline could suffer if they aren't addressed.
A Call for Investigation
Social media posts by military members and veterans have been in the spotlight since the Capitol assault – an event that has led to the arrests of more than 150 people, four of whom currently serve in the Army or National Guard and 17 of whom are veterans.
Much of the organization for the protest that preceded the Capitol attack occurred on social media, as did the underground plot to break into the building and possibly target lawmakers.
Rep. Jackie Speier, a California Democrat who serves as chairwoman of the House Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee, is calling for the Pentagon to thoroughly investigate military recruits through their social media pages.
She wrote Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to direct the services to establish procedures to review the social media activity of incoming recruits, supplemented by guidance "to assist recruiters in identifying extremist groups and activities."
"Social media is not reviewed during the military's accessions process or even as part of the background investigation process for security clearances, despite collection and reporting of other intrusive, private data, such as financial and behavioral health information," Speier wrote. "This gap is inexcusable."
But the Defense Department walks a thin line between squashing service members’ First Amendment rights, discipline and the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday.
"There aren't necessarily uniform understandings across the services about how to look at social media, whether and to what degree, and there's First Amendment issues here. There's real First Amendment concerns that we have to look at," Kirby said.
Service members across the ranks have gotten attention for social media posts that violate military political speech rules and even call their personal loyalties into question.
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/02/04/beijing-biden-not-my-president-troops-social-media-posts-spotlight-after-capitol-riots.html
Privacy is dead, did DOD buy the data from FB/twat?