The Social Safety Administration will not be speaking with the media and the general public by means of press releases and “expensive colleague” letters, because it shifts its public communication solely to X, sources inform WIRED. The information comes amid main staffing cuts on the company.
“We’re not planning to subject press releases or these expensive colleague letters to tell the media and public about programmatic and repair modifications,” stated SSA regional commissioner Linda Kerr-Davis in a gathering with managers earlier this week. “As a substitute, the company might be utilizing X to speak to the press and the general public … so it will grow to be our communication mechanism.”
Beforehand, the company used expensive colleague letters to have interaction with advocacy teams and third-party organizations that assist folks entry social safety advantages. Current letters lined every little thing from the company’s new id verification procedures to updates on the accuracy of SSA demise data (“lower than one-third of 1 p.c are erroneously reported deaths that have to be corrected,” the company wrote, in distinction to what Elon Musk claims).
The letters and press releases have been additionally an important communications software for SSA staff, who used them to remain up on company information. Since SSA workers can not join social media on authorities computer systems with out submitting a particular safety request, the change may have damaging penalties on the power for workers to do their jobs.
It may additionally influence folks receiving social safety advantages who depend on the letters for details about entry advantages. “Do they actually anticipate senior residents will be part of this platform?” requested one present worker. “Most managers aren’t even on it. How isn’t this a battle of curiosity?” One other staffer added: “It will be certain that the general public doesn’t get the data they should keep up-to-date.”
Linda Kerr-Davis additionally didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark by WIRED.
“This reporting is deceptive. The Social Safety Administration is actively speaking with beneficiaries and stakeholders,” says Liz Huston, a White Home spokesperson. “There has not been a discount in workforce. Moderately, to enhance the supply of companies, workers are being reassigned from regional workplaces to front-line assist – allocating finite sources the place they’re most wanted. President Trump will proceed to all the time shield Social Safety.”
Elon Musk, who’s main the cost to radically cut back the dimensions of the federal workforce on behalf of President Trump, purchased X (then Twitter) in October 2022. The platform has for years battled the unfold of misinformation. After he bought the corporate, Musk fired contract content material moderators and shifted content material moderation efforts to a crowd-sourced fact-checking software referred to as Neighborhood Notes. In 2023, an EU official warned the platform was a significant supply of pretend information, primarily based on a commissioned research that reported “Twitter has the best discoverability” of disinformation.
The regional workplace workforce will quickly be reduce by roughly 87 p.c, sources inform WIRED. Regional workplace workers handle IT help, coverage questions, labor relations points, affordable lodging steerage, and public relations. Since February, the SSA has reduce 7,000 jobs, in response to The Washington Submit.
