The TSA has outlasted its critics

At the start of this decade, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration was frequently in the news for its many scandals. They ranged from TSA agents groping passengers to the agency failing to spot most weapons being smuggled through its screening areas.
A grassroots campaign sprung up to advocate that the agency be overhauled or even privatized. Citizens demanded that their Fourth Amendment rights not be violated just because they chose to fly on a commercial airline.
TSA critics created websites and social media accounts to spread the word about the injustices of the TSA.
I had a Twitter page called TSA Rants that collected complaints about the Transportation Security Administration from travelers from Dec. 18, 2011, to Dec. 18, 2012.
As part of my outreach to fellow TSA critics, I followed a bunch of like-minded websites and Twitter accounts. Today, only one of over 20 such Twitter accounts is still active. The survivor is TSA parody Twitter account Agent Smith at @TSAgov.
Here’s a list of anti-TSA Twitter accounts that are no longer active and are likely to be wiped off the internet once Twitter enacts its plan to delete inactive accounts.

• TSA Watch, @TSAWatch (July 2009 to January 2010)
• TSA Global PR, @TSAGlobalPR (July 2010 to May 2013)
• TSA Abuse, @tsaabuse (November 2010 to August 2012)
• Smash TSA, @smashtheTSA (November 2010 to April 2011)
• Tired of the assault, @endtheTSA (November 2010 to March 2012)
• TSAagent, @TSAagent (November 2010 to July 2012) 
• Fly with Dignity, @optoutTSA (November 2010)
• National Opt Out Day, @NationalOptOut (November 2010 to June 2011) 
• We Won’t Fly, @WeWontFly (November 2010 to September 2012) 
• The TSA Choice, @theTSAchoice (November 2010 to January 2011)
• TSA PR Team, @TSAPRTeam (November 2010 to April 2011) 
• TSA status, @tsastatus (November 2010 to October 2016)
• Anonymous, @iwillnotflylist (November 2010 to March 2017)
• TSA For America, @tsaforamerica (November 2010)
• TSA: WTF?, @tsawtf (December 2010 to October 2012) 
• EPIC, @ScanTSA (January 2011 to November 2011)
• TSA Dalek, @TSADalek (August 2011 to January 2016)
• AKFreedomToTravelUSA, @AKFTTUSA (October 2011 to May 2019)
• TSA Nightmare Stories, @tsanightmares (November 2011 to June 2018) 
• TSA News, @TSANewsBlog (November 2011 to July 2014) 
• Say the Fourth, @SaytheFourth (July 2012 to August 2013) 
• T.S.A. Eliot, @TSA_Eliot (October 2012 to August 2013) 
• TSA Tom, @TOMfromTSA (November 2012) 
• TSA OptOut & Film, @OptOutandFilm (November 2012 to July 2016) 

Also, several related anti-TSA websites are no longer online. They include sites for TSA News Blog, TSA Watch, We Won’t Fly, The TSA Choice, TSA: WTF?, I Will Not Fly List, AKFreedomToTravelUSA and National Opt Out Day.
These TSA websites and Twitter accounts went silent after their complaints fell on the deaf ears of Washington politicians. American citizens continue to complain about the policies of the Transportation Security Administration, but most have come to accept that it’s difficult to reform any government bureaucracy.

Photo: “So you’re telling me my bag was inspected?” by Clint McMahon. (Via Creative Commons)