FDA Twitter account blasted for misinformation on e-cig regulations by Matt Rowland

Since the May 5 announcement of the controversial FDA e-cig regulations, vaping enthusiasts and retailers alike are taking to Twitter to express their outrage. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, many people are also discovering that the FDA is doing the very same thing.

The Food and Drug Administration is one of those strange government agencies that seem to have an opinion on nearly everything that Americans eat, drink, or inhale. From posting warnings about which foods can be fatal to our family pets to holding press conferences on the potential health risks of ibuprofen, the FDA is shameless in its pursuit of omnificent power through excess taxation and overregulation. But who knew that the FDA had the time or the money to hire a staff of social media whiz kids to blast tweet after tweet about the dangers of e-cigs?

(Related Article: NEW FEDERAL STUDY DEBUNKS 911 SCARE TACTICS OF FDA E-CIG REGULATIONS)

To be fair, the FDA Twitter Account has been active since 2010. And the tweets range from a variety of topics, including lung cancer and the FDA’s favorite stop-smoking program, “This Free Life.” But in the days preceding the release of the new FDA e-cig regulations, the number of negative tweets regarding vaping and e-cigs have increased significantly. If the FDA isn’t tweeting about how vaping allegedly leads to teen smoking, then they are retweeting someone else who is also posting these same kinds of very deceptive statements.

Strange tweets and weird responses of the FDA Twitter account

In other cases, the FDA is intentionally using misleading language in their tweets in an attempt to attract the support of the American people. For example, one recent tweet stated, “FDA’s new e-cig regulations restrict youth access to ALL tobacco products, including e-cigs, hookah, & more.” The “ALL tobacco products” portion is simply untrue. E-cigs are 100% tobacco-free, and the FDA knows it.

In another post, a vaper named “Fat Cat” tweeted to the FDA, “Have u still not wrapped yur collective mind around fact that regs will close 100% of bizs that sell these products?” To which the FDA staffer responded, “FDA recognizes cost of the application process may burden small businesses & aims to ease the process.”

Of course, the vaping industry as a whole has yet to locate any such information online that might “ease the process,” and these people have been looking long and hard for over a month. If there is a cheaper and faster way to maneuver through the Premarket Tobacco Products Application process, then someone would have found it and tweeted it by now…and the tweet would have gone viral within hours.

To join in the fun of toying with the FDA Twitter Team by expressing your discontent over the FDA e-cig regulations, just click on the link for the FDA Twitter Account and start replying to as many tweets as you like. If recent history is any indication, there will likely be several strange FDA tweets to choose from on an almost 24/7 basis.

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