Effective immediately, the town of Wasaga Beach will no longer allow commenting on its social media platforms.
Mayor Nina Bifolchi explains why.
Bifolchi says it is not about differing opinions or the Town trying to control the narrative. She says it’s about a small group of people who merely want to spread hate and lies online.
October 28, 2021-An updated statement from the Town has been released, which states:
Unfortunately, this action impacted those individuals that commented on the page in a civil and respectful manner, even if they disagreed with a town decision. Some have reached out and asked why take this step and what did the town do to try and moderate the page prior to making this decision.
The purpose of the town page has always been about communicating to residents and businesses about activities the town was involved with or correcting misinformation, celebrating anniversaries, introducing new staff, and generally sharing what was happening in the community.
In 2017, we established a set of rules for the page when comments on the pages became increasingly crude, aggressive, hateful, and at times libelous.
The rules stated the following:
The municipality uses this space to share information with residents, businesses, and visitors.
People are welcome to comment on items the town has posted. The feedback can be positive or critical. We believe having a dialogue with residents is important.
Comments must be relative to the post topic.
Questions about municipal matters are always welcome.
Comments that are harassing and vexatious, malicious, libelous, profane, false, misleading, inaccurate, or insulting will not be tolerated.
Personal attacks of any kind, directed at anyone, including other users of the page, members of council, or staff are strictly prohibited.
Individuals who violate the town’s rules for this page will have their comments deleted. Repeat offenders will be banned from using the page.
Moderation decisions are not open for discussion.
To enforce the rules, the town used various options permitted through the social media platforms, including the following tools:
- Cautioning users to refrain from violating the rules;
- Hiding offensive comments, as well as comments that were harassing, vexatious, malicious, libelous, profane, false, misleading, inaccurate, or insulting.
- Deleting comments for reasons noted in the previous point.
- Revoking page privileges for repeat offenders.
In some instances, the town restored privileges to banned users who appealed our decision. If these individuals agreed to review the rules and follow them, the town restored their privileges. In most cases, these offenders posed no further problems once they could again access to the page – although some made it clear they still did not agree with our moderation of them or the page rules.
The town has never wanted its social media platforms to be a place for people to share false information and that is why it took such a strict approach in terms of moderating comments.
The town has always wanted the pages to be a safe place where people can access factual information pertaining to town matters. Civil discussion is fine, but when those comments include falsehoods, outright lies, hyperbole, etc., the town was not prepared to allow the comment.
Over the years, moderators removed or hid comments that dealt with the following:
- Attacks on members of council for their appearance and clothing;
- Threats of bodily harm against members of council, staff, and people posting on the page;
- Potentially libelous statements about members of council, staff, and other people commenting on the page, as well as libelous statements regarding businesses;
- Attacks over sexual orientation;
- Posts that contained innuendo, misinformation, falsehoods, etc.;
- Posts from people who waited for the town to share information so they could immediately post a critical or nasty comment – these were often deemed harassing or vexatious;
- Posts from people who repeatedly asked the same questions and did not like the town’s responses;
- Posts that argued moderation decisions;
- Posts that included offensive images;
People have a right to say what they want, but equally, the town also has a right to moderate its page.
Increasingly, moderation efforts were becoming more time consuming, taking staff away from other important duties.
The town is thankful to those individuals who followed the rules. In time we may restore commenting privileges, but for now, it is time to take a break.
Despite this change to how we handle social media, the town still wants to hear from the public.
You can call staff or e-mail. You can visit the town’s community engagement site at www.letstalkwasagabeach.ca and share your feedback through the Ideas page.
The town hopes that as the pandemic eases, other engagement opportunities, including our Coffee with Council sessions, can resume.
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