Councillor outraged over deletions from Facebook

Social networking encourages comment from all avenues. Photo / Thinkstock

Social media has enabled all sorts of people to share different views and more importantly has opened up council to a new group of people. Social media by its very existence invites comment.Councillor Angela O'Leary

Hamilton City Council is vetting its social media website for negative messages - and one councillor is outraged some of her comments may have been removed because she spoke out against a council decision.

Councillor Angela O'Leary was shocked that several of her comments might have been removed without her knowledge, and said it was "outdated, undemocratic and extremely anti-transparent".

The council has a social media policy under which staff cannot make comments that speak against council decisions and it appears elected members have fallen under the same rules in the absence of their own policy.

Last night, the council's Facebook page had 892 followers.

Ms O'Leary said she was entitled to voice her political opinions.

"Social media has enabled all sorts of people to share different views and more importantly has opened up council to a new group of people.

"Social media by its very existence invites comment."

She pointed out that Hamilton Mayor Julie Hardaker put her own views in her opinion piece in the council's ratepayer-funded newsletter City News which was much more "serious" than commenting on social networking sites.

Followers on her Facebook page had also supported her rights to speak out.

But Hamilton City Council customer relationships general manager Jason Dawson said he had only "flagged" the issue with councillors yesterday as something they might want to discuss in the future.

In the meantime elected members would be treated "as normal citizens".

The public is free to comment on the council's Facebook page and the council removes only posts deemed to be defamatory, racist, sexist or offensive.

"What I said was 'an example would be if she did say something against a decision or a resolution, is she's entitled to have her view but not on the Hamilton City Council Facebook page. She's got her own channel'."

Mr Dawson also planned to investigate if and when Ms O'Leary's post had been removed previously.

The council had asked for social media training, and as part of this would discuss whether a social media policy for elected members was required.

BANNED

Comments banned from Hamilton City Council's Facebook page:

* Defamatory
* Racist
* Sexist
* Offensive language
* Religious views

Staff rules:

* No comments speaking against council decisions.