It turns out that the City of Nanaimo reads its online reviews.
Legal counsel for the municipality sent out letters this month to three administrators of social media sites, warning them not to allow discriminatory and defamatory posts on their web pages.
Apparently the city is concerned about certain personal attacks on staff members and is seeking to protect its employees, which it says is a WorkSafe B.C. requirement. The letters could be a proactive measure to safeguard the city – and therefore, taxpayers – from litigation if a bullied staff member were to try to sue for damages.
Although the strategy has some value, it isn’t likely to have much real effect in combatting bullying. Discussions on comment boards have a tendency to degenerate and emotions and opinions aren’t always tempered. Angry citizens who are blocked from one site are going to find another forum for their vituperation, and the city will find itself playing whack-a-mole.
Bizarrely, the City of Nanaimo’s legal letters go on to tell administrators how to run their sites, suggesting ways to better monitor and moderate commenting. Certainly providing this kind of IT support must fall outside a municipality’s mandate.
The timing of the letters, too, is poor, because a lot of fair criticisms of city hall exist during this period of irreconcilable conflict in council chambers. So it’s almost absurd for the city to be seen to be trying to quash criticism.
Administrators who run blogs and Facebook groups about civic politics are, for the most part, well-intentioned residents who care about Nanaimo. Serving them with legal notice seems a bit heavy-handed.
An online community, nowadays, resembles more than ever a community as a whole. We hope citizens will continue to comment, criticize, commend and care about our city.