Achi news desk-
editor’s note: The following is the second installment in a three-part series. To read Part 1, click here.
Depending on who you talk to, social media is either a great equalizer or a great threat.
Some people believe it is a great equalizer because it can give a platform to all voices.
Others think it is a major threat for the same reason.
Basically without rules, restrictions or any code of conduct, social media can be a battlefield – divisive, hostile and intolerant.
Linda Myles is the administrator of a Facebook group called Engaged Residents of Oro-Medonte (EROM), a private group of about 550 members who discuss the comings and goings of Oro-Medonte Township.
She said that her experience of suffering harassment, bullying, and misleading and false messages has made her more careful about how she administers the EROM group.
“I don’t want anyone to be subjected to that in our group,” Myles said Barrie Today. “We have a zero tolerance policy on abuse, personal attacks or false or misleading information about anyone.”
He said the group had deleted and blocked 11 profiles in two years.
“Most of those were because the person engaged in ongoing personal attacks and/or disrespectful language,” he said.
Myles said some were removed when administrators discovered they were not using their real names.
Fake profiles and fake identities are an ongoing challenge on social media. It takes little effort to create one. Googling ‘create a fake Facebook profile’ produced around 158 million results in less than a second.
“I suggest that there are those who are upset by the faceless, anonymous and remote nature of social media who behave much differently online than they do in their daily face-to-face interactions,” said George Cabral, deputy mayor of Springwater Township.
“One way to deal, as an individual, with this kind of distortion is to tune it out and avoid involvement as much as possible.”
In “real life,” says Cabral, people talk behind others’ backs all the time, but, for the most part, the person being talked about remains unaware because people are too polite to talk about whatever the little things are to her face. .
On social media, however, people don’t just make comments, they go out of their way to make sure the person the comment relates to knows the comment exists.
“People feel confident enough to write/say whatever they would normally only say in private or behind someone’s back,” said Cabral, “but here we are, completely open to eyes anyone can see it or their ears can hear it, including the individual. to whom the comment was directed.”
Don Lewis is the administrator of a Facebook group called Oro-Medonte Community Matters. The group includes new posts almost daily, many of which are highly critical of Oro-Medonte council members. The group has almost 1,000 members.
Several Oro-Medonte councilors called the site out for spreading misinformation, posting personal attacks on council members and generally stirring the pot.
They claim that Lewis is not a real person — that he is a fake profile being used to hide the identity of a disgruntled resident.
“I’ve been called Don Lewis all my life. I live in Oro-Medonte,” Lewis said during a Facebook exchange with Barrie Today.
“I hear all the accusations made against me, but I don’t care.”
According to Lewis, the Oro-Medonte Community Affairs page allows anonymous contributions because there are taxpayers who are afraid to speak publicly because they have been bullied and lost business because their companies have been targeted by people they opinions different from theirs.
“This is a way of allowing freedom of expression without exposing people at risk,” he said.
Lewis also claims that some members of his group have had anonymous, defamatory letters sent to their employers.
When asked to give specific examples or names of people who have been bullied or lost business because of their comments, Lewis did not give any.
He said the issue is not about who is doing the posting, but rather what is being posted.
“Posting facts is simply not bullying,” he said.
But the fundamental issue, according to some township councillors, is the accuracy of those facts. They note that municipal politics is full of moving parts; some decisions are made in public and some are made in closed session. Unless you are privy to all those conversations, any speculation is just that.
“The opportunity to spread distortion, perpetuate false narratives and create arguments, in my mind, in any case, weaponises social media far too easily, taking it far from being the good, valuable communication tool it was to be,” said Cabral.
“That’s the difficulty. And while I believe it’s a small percentage of users, the numbers don’t matter when their frequency and reach can be so vast digitally. With one post followed by the click of a button, a comment – good or bad – can be posted instantly to a multitude of social media accounts.”
‘Russ Logan’ is the administrator of the Springwater Ontario Discussion Group, which has approximately 1,000 members. He is quick to point out that Logan is not his real last name. He said he is a Springwater resident who uses a ‘nom de plume’ because of his job.
He said he had set up the group page to get people engaged and hopefully get some feedback that local politicians would consider when making decisions for the community.
“I try not to censor too much unless it’s completely rude and unhelpful,” he said during a Facebook chat. “It’s okay to be mad. Being abusive or threatening is unacceptable and will not be approved.”
Back in Oro-Medonte, Myles said Facebook needs to play an active role in managing the online environment. She said she reported the harassment and bullying to Facebook, but with no results.
“In my experience, Facebook does nothing,” he said. “There are far too many harassing, slanderous and defamatory posts allowed on Facebook.”
Barrie Today contact Facebook to find out how the social media giant defines harassment, bullying and intimidation, and what action it takes when a complaint is made. Despite repeated requests, Facebook did not respond.
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