The Social Security Administration announced a Severance-style censorship policy Thursday that prohibits employees from reading the news on their work devices. The SSA—with a workforce of about 57,000 employees—sent a morning email to all staff to prescribe “additional restrictions to the categories of websites prohibited from government-furnished equipment.” It included “sports,” “online shopping,” and “general news.” Newly installed SSA caretaker Leland Dudek—who was placed on leave for cooperating with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency before Trump elevated him to active commissioner—said that DOGE is now calling the shots at the agency and “things are currently operating in a way I have never seen in government before,” The Washington Post reported. Amid efforts to slash the federal workforce, Musk has called Social Security “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.” The email said that the policy is intended to “help reduce risk and better protect the sensitive information entrusted to us in our many systems.”
