We’ve received queries from the public recently about why we disable comments on Shire Facebook posts.
Historically, the Shire of Gingin embraced social media as a useful two-way means of communication with our communities. However, in recent years we’ve had to deal with – as have most public service organisations - increasingly hostile, divisive, and unreasonable online interaction from the public, usually because of a decision
or course of action the Shire has made that people don’t like or agree with, which then results in lengthy and sometimes vicious diatribes on Facebook. This makes responding by Shire officers in a constructive and meaningful way almost impossible.
Also, local governments are bound to recordkeeping policies and regulations which apply to electronic media communication. We simply do not have the resources to monitor, moderate, respond to and record all the threads, comments, and posts on our Facebook page. For this reason, and in the interests of transparency, we do our best to ‘share’ our posts to the various community group Facebook pages in the region where members of the public can make whatever comment they wish.
In saying that, if you have read or heard something about the Shire that is of concern to you, we strongly encourage you to either give us a call on 9575 5100 or send us an email to mail@gingin.wa.gov.au in the first instance so we can clarify our position and provide you with the facts. By doing so, you will help to shut down rumour mills that cause confusion and angst in your community.
While we respect everyone’s right to their opinion, we also reserve the right to moderate social media communication in a way that we see fit and appropriate for our organisation.