Attacks on social media
It was Albert Einstein that said, “Don’t believe everything you read on Social Media”.
One thing you must remember about Facebook, is that we often see posts that seem legitimate and believable, however sometimes we find out… they’re not. Most of us have come to realise that such is the nature of Facebook – that there is no guarantee of truth or accuracy.
Facebook is a powerful and beneficial medium to connect communities, to communicate, and to achieve incredible positive outcomes. However and unfortunately, we often see how false information and false allegations can be readily accepted as fact, causing significant hurt and damage.
Recently, you may have seen a person not using their own name impersonating us from behind a mask of a 'group', slandering our team, generating false memes and attacking some young members of our community. A number of these attacking posts were directed towards members of the Your Northern Beaches Independent Team, a number of our friends and people in our Northern Beaches community. Because we have engaged the police and lawyers, we can't go through the entire background. However, these direct attacks have been personal, deceitful, and hurtful, contributing to the negative mental health impacts on vulnerable members in our community as well as the intentional spread of disinformation. This is the last thing we all need when we are facing a pandemic together.
As a Political Party, Councillors and Candidates, we are certainly open to, and accepting of criticism, and we welcome the opportunity to openly communicate with our detractors, to debate and clarify any claim, information, or misinformation posted to Facebook. What we will not accept is blatant, mischievous and malicious claims being suggested to the Community and innocent people.
Think critically please, community, especially when you see people tear others down. We believe in working together to lift everyone up and we're happy to go for a walk together, have a chat and discuss, after all, what better way to clear the air?
