In an attempt to curb an increasing number of toxic posts and comments and what the mayor called “thinly veiled death threats” aimed at its new council, the City of Langford has launched a new social-media policy.
The policy is designed to provide guidelines for staff, the public and council on how to communicate “effectively and appropriately” on social media platforms the city uses to do business and interact with the public.
Mayor Scott Goodmanson, who ousted long-time mayor Stew Young in the civic election last fall and has been the target of disparaging remarks, said the new policy approved at Monday’s council meeting sets the “tone and expectations” for city social media accounts.
“Recently, there has been utterly inappropriate dialogue online, including thinly veiled death threats, to members of council,” Goodmanson said Wednesday. “This is simply unacceptable and will not be tolerated.
“It is alarming and very disappointing that some members of the public believe it is acceptable to act in such an appalling manner toward elected officials.”
Critics of the current council, which is entirely new except for Coun. Lillian Szpak, have taken to the city’s social media accounts to target council members. They have come under a barrage of fire for an unprecedented 12.4% property-tax increase after decades of low rates, as the city aims to cover expenses such as new firefighting and policing costs due to the city’s rapid growth.
Individual councillors have been singled out for alleged anti-development positions. Some posters have suggested council is holding secret meetings, while others have accused the new council of bringing a homeless population to the city.
Speakers at recent council meetings have been restricted to a time limit, which causes noticeable friction, and ordered to only speak to items on the agenda and not bring up other issues.
Those restrictions have led to increasing feelings of frustration toward council. Earlier this year, bylaw officers were brought in for the public-participation portions of meetings. Protesters against the tax hikes were told to remove their signs from the chambers.
Under the new policy, staff will reserve the right to delete comments, messages and posts that include violent, obscene, profane, hate-based, or racist language, links or images on all city social media platforms.
The city can remove comments that contain personal, sensitive or confidential information about any person, or the promotion of political candidates.
Goodmanson said the policy will allow for “more robust two-way public engagement, a high priority for council, while ensuring a safe and respectful environment for everyone participating.”
Langford will establish a new Facebook account in the coming weeks, along with a Let’s Chat Langford forum hosted on the city’s website. Residents can register for updates by visiting letschatlangford.ca.
Coun. Kimberley Guiry told council she supports efforts to remove threatening, discriminatory, hate-based or harassing comments and messages, and blocking individuals who make them.
“Unfortunately, I’ve already had experience with this type of dialogue and it’s validating to know we created a safe space on social media interactions,” she said.
Guiry said as of Monday there were comments on social media that could be interpreted as death threats and intent to cause harm on council. “I can’t even begin to express how inappropriate it is that these comments exist and that people ‘like’ them,’ ” she said.
“While we can’t control what happens on other social media platforms, we can do our best to create safe places in the places we interact with the public.”
Coun. Mary Wagner said the public have “unreasonable expectations of what politicians should have to endure.” “It’s not just negative feedback … it’s bullying, harassment, personal attacks and it’s not OK,” said Wagner, holding back tears.
Coun. Mark Morley added: “I’m a great believer that if you can’t say it to me personally or you can’t say it to the council personally, you should not be jumping on the city [social media] pages and making a comment that is disparaging to an individual, or someone in the group or someone in the public.”
Coun. Colby Harder said it’s a fine line between welcoming free speech and allowing hate speech to flourish.
“We can’t be tolerant without limits, because that breeds space for intolerance, which we are seeing online — the rise of hate speech, the rise of disparaging comments towards people when we should be debating the policy,” said Harder. “It’s disturbing, and it keeps young women like myself out of politics, which I find frustrating.”
Goodmanson said comments that feel like death threats on social media “are not a joke.”
“When comments like that are made, it’s not something that’s ignored,” he said. “When people bully and threaten … it’s something that I’m very upset about.”
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