Yellowknife council passes resolution to close social commenting

Yellowknife city councillors have passed a resolution to close commenting on the municipality’s social media channels.

Mayor Ben Hendriksen and all councillors present at a meeting at City Hall on Wednesday voted in favour of the resolution, save for Steve Payne.

“I’m not in support of this motion, not because I don’t feel it’s important, I just feel that there’s a lot of other things that we could have done to mitigate any hateful speech instead of just removing comments altogether,” Payne said.

The councillor had previously suggested the city use moderation tools, such as requiring approval to publish comments, to address concerns.

Mayor Hendriksen had proposed the resolution to close comments due to “often racist, homophobic, or more broadly just hateful comments” on the city’s Facebook posts in recent years. Hendriksen said closing commenting would prevent municipal staff from having to “act like the speech police.”

The city has recently restricted comments on Facebook posts related to Pride Month and the renaming of Franklin Avenue to Wıìlıìdeh Avenue.

The resolution states the city will review the policy to close commenting after six months.

Hendriksen has said the city will continue to share information on social media and residents will still be able to share those posts and comment on them elsewhere, as well as send direct messages to the municipality.

Resident wants city to join Fediverse

Ahead of the vote on Wednesday, local resident Jeremy Flatt told councillors he was “strongly in favour” of closing comments on Facebook.

Presenting to council, Flatt said the city should not be obligated to “tolerate aggressive or abusive behaviour” to engage with residents online.

“It’s not constructive, it’s not an efficient use of staff time and, above all, it’s not fair on the city employees who are forced to act as moderators,” he said.

Flatt voiced broader concerns with Facebook, saying it is not a neutral platform nor one over which users have control. He asserted Facebook’s algorithm is designed to keep people engaged, which means “even the most innocuous posts” can be shared without context to fuel division.

“This is corrosive to civil society and to democracy,” he said.

“Every time we interact with it, we are carrying water for a system that is actively undermining our way of life.”

While the city could still use Facebook to share information, Flatt suggested the municipality turn to a federated social media service like Mastodon as an alternative platform for two-way engagement.

Flatt was part of a group of northerners that held an event about “the Fediverse” in Yellowknife last October. The term is a portmanteau of federated and universe, and refers to a decentralized network of independently operated social media platforms – including Mastodon.

Flatt said when people make their own communities on Mastodon, they can set engagement rules and block people who break those rules. He said users also own their own data and the platform does not have ads or algorithms that curate content.

“The deterioration of traditional social media spaces is a golden opportunity for municipal governments to rebuild this important aspect of modern democracy,” he said.

“Yellowknife has the chance to lead the way as the first municipality in Canada to launch its own federated social media services.”

Hendriksen thanked Flatt for his presentation and for “expanding the opportunities and considerations that are out there.”

City staff said they would consider Flatt’s suggestion as part of a review and update of Yellowknife’s communications strategy.