Originally Posted by flensr

There is a thing called "malicious compliance", whereby a subordinate picks the worst possible way to interpret or implement a directive from their boss, and runs with that in a very pubic way in order to attempt to embarass or discredit their boss.

This isn't the first incident where this has happened, and it won't be the last. It already happened in the military where after being directed to cease non-duty social media public relations activity until a new social media policy was formulated and distributed, some commanders tried to tell their subordinates that it was illegal for them to make personal use of social media.