Shapiro’s office: Gov. has never browsed the internet on state devices

Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office says the governor does not browse the internet — ever — while using a state-issued cell phone, tablet, or computer, a sweeping claim for his more than 1,100 days in office that, while technically possible, still defies common logic in the face of how work typically gets done in the modern internet era.

The claim was made Friday in a sworn statement by the governor’s open records officer in response to a Right to Know Law request by this outlet for a copy of Shapiro’s browser history on any state-issued device.

After Shapiro’s office denied the request saying there were no responsive documents, Broad + Liberty appealed to the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records. The OOR then asked for more detail, seeking specifics such as what devices were searched and who searched them.

“Because of the need for confidentiality and security regarding the Governor’s use of information technology resources, I am not at liberty to disclose the precise identity of the individuals with whom I consulted,” Shapiro’s open records officer Marc Eisenstein said in response to the OOR.

“My conversations with the above-referenced individuals confirmed… that the Governor does not use and has not used Commonwealth-owned or Commonwealth-managed information technology resources to ‘browse’ the internet,” Eisenstein then concluded.

The categorical nature of the claim — especially for a “get stuff done” governor so fully integrated into social media — cuts sharply against virtually every understanding of today’s modern work environment three decades after the internet began to radically reshape the American workplace.

Eisenstein’s attestation is also notable because it sidesteps the OOR’s directive asking him to detail the office’s search for records and “to include information such as who was consulted, who conducted searches, what was searched, and the findings of such search.”

Shapiro’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

    

If the governor is purposely keeping all of his internet browsing to personal devices, that practice raises its own set of security risks. State-issued devices like phones, tablets, and laptops would be constantly maintained and updated with the latest security software, patches, and upgrades. State-issued devices would also likely come equipped with encryption features, whereas personal devices could be using networks or communication tools that could be vulnerable.

And if the governor is avoiding using any state-issued devices to access the internet in its most simple form such as reading news reports, it then becomes one of the most extreme examples of a public official trying to build habits or infrastructure to avoid creating a paper trail — in league with Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server or her husband’s purposeful avoidance of email.

The other close parallel might be the current president, Donald Trump, who, as part of a court case in 2022 asserted that he never texted or used email. But even that comparison is strained given that Trump would be avoiding putting things in writing, whereas Shapiro is refraining from even opening a Chrome browser window to read his own profile pieces in the Atlantic.

Another document obtained in a separate Right to Know request shows that over a two-month period, the governor receives dozens of emails that appear to be nothing more than forwards of news articles. Although technically possible for those emails to contain the full news article in the body of the email, that technique would still be burdensome and would require the cooperation of dozens, if not hundreds of staff members.

For example, a log of email metadata from two of the earliest months of Shapiro’s tenure show emails such as “Re:Shapiro Budget Cuts Program Key To Stopping Recidivism, Activists say | Across Pennsylvania, PA Patch,” and “Fwd: Governor’s Office AM Clips 03.01.23” or “Fwd: Flickr link.”

Another email subject line says, “This Philly student just got into Harvard, the first from her neighborhood high school to do so,” — a word-for-word match with an Inquirer article published a day or two earlier.

Still more emails appear to be direct links to TribLIVE or New York Times articles, based on the email subject line.

In the event the purported lack of a browser history is, in fact, a vestige of a document mitigation strategy, it is likely to feed those who have criticised Shapiro as being overly secretive.

As Broad + Liberty revealed last year, Shapiro’s office deleted the email account for the woman deputy who accused then-Director of Legislative Affairs, Mike Vereb, of sexually harassing her in the office. Vereb resigned in September 2023. This outlet learned of the email deletion only because it took the Shapiro administration to court when it appeared that portions of a Right to Know request had seemingly been ignored.

“Let’s be honest here, you don’t refuse to hand over records if everything is in good standing. You refuse to hand over records when you’re scared of the blowback from that information hitting the public,” Republican State Representative Abby Major wrote last year.

“It shouldn’t take a small army of lawyers and court orders to get transparency from a governor who promised it. However, under Josh Shapiro, that seems to be the norm,” Major concluded.

Last May, Oliver Bateman penned an entire article at Real Clear Pennsylvania titled, “Does Josh Shapiro Have a Secrecy Problem?”

“I want Josh Shapiro to succeed. As a centrist Pennsylvanian who voted for him over woefully out-of-his-depth Doug Mastriano back in 2022, I see a governor who could help lead the disorganized Democrats out of the wilderness. His pragmatic style, ability to work across the aisle, and Obama-lite rhetorical style make him exactly the kind of moderate leader the party needs for its future.

“Which is why his transparency problem drives me crazy,” Bateman wrote.

Bateman then catalogued even more issues, such as a “secret ‘Climate Change Working Group’ that operated for five months without public knowledge” and “secret negotiations with major campaign donors on union contracts that included 22% salary increases make even supporters wince.”

“Shapiro likes to say he's focused on ‘getting sh*t done.’ But transparency isn't a distraction from governing – it's an essential part of it. We deserve to see both sides of his face, not just the carefully managed public persona of a one-eyed jack,” Bateman concluded. “That's not an unreasonable ask from supporters who want to propel him to the next level. It's the minimum requirement for anyone who hopes to lead in an era when trust in government is already dangerously low.”