Keeping Up with #EpiGate

If you are going to post or tweet about this issue, rather than using Mr. Epi's  name or twitter handle, another epidemiologist, @epiApril, has suggested using #epigate.

The shortest version: Mr. X (a private citizen) and Mr. Epi (an employee of a department of health) got into an online brangle.  Mr. X barraged Mr. Epi's colleagues and superiors with threatening emails.  Some days later, Mr. Epi's employers asked that he refrain from using social media to talk about public health issues.  Mr. Epi has taken down his blog. Both Mr. X and Mr. Epi were, at the start of the brangle, linking their online handles to their real names. 

The internets erupted.  I think it did so for the following reasons:

1. Mr. Epi's popularity
2. The ongoing hotly debated subject of anonymity, pseudonymity or "real names" for health care professionals
3. The ongoing hotly debated subjects of the validity and utility of using a pseudonym (this is known as the #nymwars or #realnames)
4. Science Blogs announcement that bloggers using pseudonyms will not have their contracts renewed

 Posts on #EpiGate or Touching on #EpiGate Issues

1. August 19, 2011 Liz Ditz at I Speak of Dreams A Public Servant, Blogging and Tweeting Under His Own Name, Has Been Silenced by His Employers
2. August 20, 2011 Anarchic Teapot at Anarchic Teapot Malevolent Stupidity Never Sleeps
3. August 21, 2011 Pranab at Scepticemia After ImpactEDNurse, @EpiRen's Turn to Go: Pitfalls of #HCSM
4. August 21, 2011 Skeptical Lawyer at Skeptical Lawyer Lessons from EpiRen: Do Public Employees Have Free Speech Rights
5. August 22, 2011 Orac Knows at Respectful Insolence The Consequences of Blogging Under One's Own Name
6. August 22, 2011 PZ Myers at Pharyngula (Freethought edition) Rhett Daniels, Litigious Bully
7. August 22, 2011  Larry Moran at Sandwalk Despicable Rhett S. Daniels
8. August 22, 2011 PalMD at White Coat Underground Of Douches, Online Identity, and Ethics
9. August 22, 2011 Judy Stone MD at Politics, Science, and Other Assorted Musings: Censorship Causes blindness: A Valuable Public Servant Has Been Silenced
10. August 22, 2011 Dr. Nescio at Primum Non Nocere Attack of the Anti-Science Movement
11. August 22, 2011 Pranab at Scepticemia Rhett Daniels, EpiRen and the Streisand Effect
12. August 22, 2011 Chris Clarke at Coyote Crossing: Rhett Daniels, Thuggish Internet Crackpot
13. August 23, 2011 Tara C. Smith at Aetiology On the Value of Psuedonyms
14. August 23, 2011 Bruce Gorton at Expensive Beliefs (TimesLive, NZ) Rhett S. Daniels: The Misuse of Courts
15. August 23, 2011 Sullivan at LeftBrain/RightBrain EpiGate: When Blogging Under One's Own Name Can Be Used Against You
16. August 24, 2011 ToddW at Harpocrates Speaks A Brief Note on Legal Thuggery and the Silencing of Others

For those of you having questions about how employers may limit employees' speech on social media, please consult The NLRB's New Social Media Guide (sent to me via twitter from Richard Posey).  This doesn't apply to Mr. Epi, as he is a state employee.

Comments

[Mrepid.wordpress.com]

I've been very impressed with the outcry that has erupted over this. Lots of people are upset, and I think part of the problem is not knowing who to direct our anger towards.

I think blogging under a pseudonym is fine. It's when people take that as carte blanche to attack others it turns ugly.

Aside: I'm not the Mr Epi in question. I'm another, unrelated, Mr Epi(demiology).

[Matt Carey]

"This doesn't apply to Mr. Epi, as he is a state employee."

I wonder: if Mr. Epi were to be sued, would his employer aid in his defense? They can't have it both ways. Either they can restrict his speech and they must, therefore, take some responsibility, or they should allow him the ability to express his opinion openly.

[Skeptical Lawyer]

Matt Carey:

Good thought, but, as you might expect, the law is not quite that simple. Legally, a public employer can restrict the speech of an employee if either the speech is made as part of the employee's official duties or the speech substantially affects the employer's operations.

The employer would have to provide a defense only if EpiRen were speaking in his official capacity. But it's still legal for them to restrict his speech, to some extent, even if he's not speaking in his official capacity. Therefore, there are instances where they can restrict his speech but don't have to defend him.

[Rhett S. Daniels, PhD]

not the real Rhett Daniels One more and I will block the IP address
You're ALL UNDER ARREST>

[Matt Carey]

Another: http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/2011/08/epigate-when-blogging-under-ones-own-name-can-be-used-against-you/

[MarkH]

I had just started enjoying the Epidemiology Night School and now the whole of Epi's web site has disappeared.

Luckily, it looks as though the ENS is being re-published over at
http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/

[Lil Peck]

I am happy to see that Epi is posting on Twitter again. I missed everything that happened between when he was silenced and now. Will you kindly summarize?