What to do with Facebook Page Pirates

I was going to his do a piece about SOPA And PIPA and the ridiculous bills before U.S. Congress regarding Internet privacy laws and censorship when another, more personal event occurred, on a somewhat related topic. So, this became my subject matter instead.

And it has to do, once again, with social media and groups on Facebook. Yes, it’s not the first time I’ve broached this subject matter.

I was added to a group called Growing Up In Rexdale – now 1,200 plus members strong. Yes, I did grow up in Rexdale. No, there’s no need to say “Sorry about that.”

Anyway, I was totally digging a lot of the threads on the page. The memories it sparked, the catching up with friends, seeing old photographs…all quite priceless. And the dialogue from the members was, for the most part, really sincere and quite hilarious at times. Great banter.

But then, it happened. Some guy, Matt Bradshaw, threw down the following thread: rexdale sucked, sorry kids! and all hell broke loose. People totally lost their shit about it. I simply asked the guy why he’d join a group to post that. No response. Within hours there were over a hundred comments from “offended Rexdalians.” A day later, there were over 200. People were tossing daggers at this guy. So, what does he do? Naturally, he keeps going and starts making random comments about “rubber dolls and masturbation.” I could just tell, this guy was having the time of his life stirring up shit.

Now, if you had a child and they started throwing a temper tantrum and acting up, what would you do? Scream and yell back at them. Or turn the other cheek and ignore the bad behaviour until they realize that it isn’t getting what they really want – attention?

What did several members of this group do?

One person decided to hold a survey on the page and ask people to Like her post if they wanted Matt to be allowed to stay or Comment and say No if they wanted him evicted from the group. There were 29 comments – 6 of which were from Matt himself asking if both he and his rubber doll were going to be hung? I thought it was pretty funny.

Other people in the group were demanding that the Admin ban him from the Group. It really got out of hand to be honest.

The result: the Admin caved to a very small minority of the group and had him removed.

Which brings into question: what’s the best way to handle this type of intrusion on a Facebook page?

The reaction to Matt’s post(s) was strong. And I think that if you’re a brand on Facebook, these would be your true brand ambassadors rallying around you. But is it right to ban people altogether, especially from social groups? That is the question.

To me, I’d say no. It amounts to censorship. Everyone is entitled to an opinion and if you don’t agree with it, it’s your right to air a rebuttal. Or, as was the case with my child tantrum example, ignore the fucking moron. But to remove someone just because they post a contrary view to what the prevailing attitude is or throw down a few likely drunken lewd comments seems knee-jerk. They didn’t even give him a chance to redeem himself. And what’s offensive to some isn’t offensive to all.

Don’t get me wrong, the guy seemed like he definitely had a few loose screws. But his complete lack of couth, abundance of spelling mistakes and general uneducated self made him good food for comedy fodder to me. Who knows, this blog post might even get me banned.

I’ve community-managed a few Facebook pages for my clients and I would never remove people from posting negative comments. Spam (Work from Home Now), yes? But other than that, let the chips fall where they may.

And that’s my brain fart for Friday, January 20, 2012.