A fire at the SIlver Spring Metro stop. Photo by Catherine Merwitz.

A fire at the SIlver Spring Metro stop. Photo by Catherine Merwitz.

News of Tuesday’s fire under a Metro train in Silver Spring spread like, well, a fire on Twitter, with many a critical tweet sent about Metro’s handling of the incident.

Chris Barnes of the popular FixWMATA Twitter account, which regularly posts about issues with Metro, was one user sending out information about the fire Tuesday, as well as criticisms of Metro. He discovered this morning he had been blocked from following WMATA’s Twitter feed.

According to its social media policy, Metro’s tweets are considered part of the public record: “All communication via our social media channels is considered public. Posts as well as any feedback from the general public will become part of the public record and will be subject to applicable retention.” There’s no official policy about blocking users available online.

DCist placed a call to Metro asking what their social media policy is on blocking Twitter users. We are awaiting the response.

Update: Lynn Bowersox, WMATA’s Assistant General Manager for Customer Service, Communications and Marketing, responded to the DCist’s question in a statement: “Our Twitter feed is primarily to provide Metro service information for riders. Violating reasonable boundaries of professional, civil discourse with profanity, personal attacks and inaccurate speculation is not a service to riders.”

Filed Under: fixwmata, metro, twitter, wmata,