The City of Burnaby is clarifying its social media policy after several tweets that were critical of Mayor Mike Hurley and the city were “hidden” from the city’s Twitter account.
The Twitter account @BurnabyExposed had responded to several tweets by the city’s official Twitter account only to see those replies “hidden” by someone operating the account.
The replies were critical of how the city handled a visit by five inspectors to the home of the person who operates the @BurnabyExposed which is in an illegal rental suite. That story, including the city’s apology, has been documented in several NOW articles.
“You know who I won’t be voting for?” reads one of tweets that was hidden by the city. “Michael Hurley! Especially when … his staff are all about discriminating against disable, chronically ill and immunocompromised (people). And you think a simple ‘sorry’ is enough?”
The NOW contacted the City of Burnaby and received a response by its head of communications, Chris Bryan.
According to Bryan, many of the tweets should not have been hidden and were done so by mistake. The tweet replies had prompted a discussion within the city because some of them named specific city employees by name and were potentially defamatory. A communications staff member later hid all replies to city tweets as a precautionary measure.
Most of those tweets have now been restored by the city. However, a few remain hidden because they are potentially defamatory of specific city staff members. What this means, Bryan told the NOW, is that people will simply have to take an extra step to actually see them by clicking on them.
The tweets raise an issue that many local governments are dealing with in how to encourage feedback from the general public while also protecting city employees from defamatory statements.
Bryan said the city encourages the public to comment on its policies through a variety of methods.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
