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Rogue NASA

Rogue NASA or "@rogueNASA" is the Twitter handle of a group of unidentified NASA scientists who identify themselves as the unofficial resistance within NASA against U.S. President Donald Trump. The account was created in late January 2017 and currently has more than 900,000 followers. Rogue NASA is a part of the "twistance" of various U.S. Government agencies that have been created in response to the scientific claims made by Trump. Rogue NASA is also joined by other Twistance groups from NASA like @ResistanceNASA and @Alt_Nasa.

History

Prior to Trump's inauguration, there were reports that the administration was trying to limit the information that was coming from various government organizations that were involved with environmental issues, in order to deter opposing views. According to an article in the New York Times, the Trump Administration had cleansed any mention of climate change from the White House State and Department websites and ordered a halt on federal grant spending of at least four agencies . The agencies were also ordered not to send out news releases, create social media posts, blog entries, or official website content, and to contact senior officials before communicating with the media. In response to the various reports of agencies being barred from communicating with the public or media, the director of NASA's Earth science division, Michael Frielich spoke in a town hall meeting during the 97th Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society, stating that the Trump Administration had not made any changes to NASA's Earth Science division's programs. Presently, NASA's climate change website remains online and provides the current levels of carbon dioxide, global temperature, arctic ice minimum, land ice, and sea level .

Rogue NASA was formed in fear that the Trump Administration would also place similar restrictions on NASA. The group's ethos is to filter through Donald Trump's claims on the Twitter, as a way of protesting what the group deemed as censorship, and provide facts that are not approved by the Trump Administration. The account states that it is an unofficial account in its biography and encourages followers to follow official NASA accounts. It acknowledges that NASA has not been instructed to stop sharing information about science and climate change, but has also promised to inform their followers if those instructions are passed down. Tweets from the account have touched upon issues like various environmental topics, space, President Donald Trump, former President Barack Obama, and other Twitstance accounts.

Rogue NASA also has attracted support from various factions. Most notably, a graphic designer from Nova Scotia designed the logo that the group is currently using. The designer, James White, decided that he created the logo for Rogue NASA as a way to bring attention to the "grim and ominous" direction that he felt the world was heading towards. The logo is also being used to sell T-shirts, pins, and patches to help raise money for science education. As of January 31, 2017, all of the proceeds will be going towards two science-based groups: Black Girls Code, a group focusing on young and pre-teen girls of colour and establishing an interest in technology, and FIRST, a youth program that attracts those in the field of science, technology, and engineering.