Coco Dollanganger is a travel journalist with multiple years of experience covering breaking news and current events in the travel space, reporting on the impact of world events on travelers.
Prior to joining TheTravel, Coco covered current events for Travel Lens and The News Lens International. Her writing has also appeared on MSN and in China’s Business Times. When she is not writing, she can often be found exploring the music of different cultures and visiting historical sites.
A decade’s worth of the government’s open communication with the public, including travel advisories, might soon be archived under the directive of the Trump administration.
All the U.S. State Department’s posts on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) before President Donald Trump took office for his second term will soon vanish from the public eye, an unusual and unpublicized shift from the U.S. government’s typical handling of archiving past administrations’ digital footprint.
NPR reports that a State Department employee, who remained anonymous, citing apprehension of reprisals from the Trump administration, said staff members were told via an internal memo that the public could view all the older posts before Trump returned to the White House last year by filing a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
U.S. State Department Will Archive Social Media Posts Made Before Trump’s Second Term
A broader shift that could undermine open-government communication, the U.S. Department of State will have to conceal all the posts made before Trump’s second term in January 2025. The State Department, as a key source of embassy updates, travel advisories, and other important guidance for American travelers worldwide, is allegedly gearing up for this change, according to an anonymous department employee.
Although these posts will be preserved internally, they will not be easily accessible by the public, as the only way to access them is through a cumbersome request under the Freedom of Information Act, which is often “slow, discretionary, and often redacted,” says a retired Senior Diplomat, Orna Blum, in a LinkedIn post.
According to the screenshots of the internal guidance reviewed by NPR, the directive applies to all U.S. government ambassadors, embassies, and departmental bureaus and programs. The State Department posts updates, travel advisories, and many other important matters vital to the government’s policies and programs, as well as to Americans who travel abroad.
However, the internal memo has not been announced, and the U.S. Department of State has not acknowledged or responded to questions and posts about the new policy shift, leaving the department’s foreign affairs swathed in uncertainties.
“They [social media posts] include our embassies’ July 4 livestreams, photos of COVID vaccine donations to other nations, holiday greetings, condolences, cultural programming, and the day-to-day record of diplomacy. They show who the U.S. engaged with, when, and how — often the only public record of those moments,” reads Orna Blum’s post on LinkedIn.
Images and other fact sheets for travelers will also be archived soon, so Blum advised journalists, researchers, historians, public diplomacy exchange alumni, or anyone who cares about public records to review them now while they’re still publicly available with ease.
How The U.S. Department Of State’s Deletion Of Social Media Posts Would Impact American Travelers
For decades, American travelers have referred to the State Department’s social feeds for travel updates and advisories, which are all important to their journey around the world.
Even after long years have passed, previous posts about security alerts, weather emergencies, embassy closures, evacuation notices, protest warnings, and travel disruptions remain relevant to every traveler’s understanding of the government’s pattern of handling these things in the past and in the present.
For instance, the U.S. State Department handles travel advisories critical to the safety of American travelers, just like how the department warned of violent airport scams targeting tourists in Cape Town, and how it also issued a passport warning to Americans traveling internationally.
If the reported internal policy change by the U.S. Department of State moves forward, travelers might find it even harder to compare how the government handled the challenges in the past versus today.
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Real-time decision-making might also be complex for travelers planning future trips, as well as for travel agents, especially during fast-moving crises, when previous timelines aren’t readily available to the public, as the FOIA takes time and is often redacted.
What We Know So Far About The U.S. Department Of State’s Change In Policy
* The State Department’s posts on X from before President Trump took office in January 2025 will be archived.
* All these posts will not be readily accessible to the public.
* The public will need to request access to these previous posts by filing a request under the Freedom of Information Act.
* All U.S. embassies, bureaus, programs, and ambassadors’ active official X accounts are affected.
The internal directive comes after Trump’s controversial Executive Order 14253: “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” issued in March 2025, which aims at changing and removing any signs or brochures that “perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history” at public monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties within the Department of the Interior’s jurisdiction.
Advocates argue that the Trump administration continues to weaken transparency and public trust, and its latest policy change in the U.S. Department of State’s online presence only gives the public less visibility in the government’s decision-making and its consistency in protecting American travelers worldwide.
