DUNEDIN — City commissioners have agreed to disable public comments on Dunedin’s social media pages, citing a flood of misinformation, harassment and out-of-town trolling that staff said had made the platforms unusable as a community engagement tool.
The change takes effect immediately.
Once viewed as a useful way to gauge resident sentiment, social media has shifted, City Manager Jennifer Bramley told commissioners.
“Just like the way we communicated 30 years ago, the way we communicate now has changed, and so has social media,” Bramley said. “We have to ask ourselves: Is it useful to the decision-making process? Does it really gauge the sentiment of the community, or does it cause more misinformation than proper information?”
Sue Burness, the city’s communications director, said national research shows social media no longer functions as an engagement tool for local governments.
“The sentiment findings show that social media has become antisocial in many ways, as it spreads misinformation, dissension, threatening and safety concerns for residents and staff,” Burness said. “Often the intent of our posts is lost or hijacked by comments that have nothing to do with the original content.”
Many of the accounts driving negative threads on the city’s pages are not local, she said.
“So much has changed in the last year, and many of the people commenting are not real accounts,” Burness said. “They don’t live here. I look them up and they live out of state. The more negative the Facebook thread becomes, the more the Facebook algorithms feed it, and that’s a big part of the problem.”
Burness said the city researched the legal implications and found that municipalities across the country have taken the same step.
Commissioner Jeff Gow asked how residents would react.
Burness said she had heard from other Florida cities at a recent Florida Municipal Communicators Association meeting that the loudest objections come from people who decline to attend meetings or contact departments directly. Many residents, she said, would be relieved, having been bullied or harassed for posting supportive comments.
Commissioner Tom Dugard backed the proposal.
“Social media is an entity we do not control,” Dugard said. “We are using a medium of communication that is controlled by others” with “their own profit-centered agenda.”
Dugard said the platforms reward conflict because outrage is monetizable.
“I’m surprised it took us this long to get rid of it,” he said.
Mayor Maureen Freaney called the move overdue.
“Social media is controlling our world, our nation, our everything,” Freaney said. “We can either get control of it, because it’s clearly in control of us. It’s no longer an important platform for input. It’s a rabbit hole of distractions and negativity that distracts you from the real message.”
The city will continue to use its social media accounts to push out information on city projects, programs and emergency updates, Burness said. Residents can still share city posts to their own pages and comment there.
Those who want to reach the city directly can email communications@dunedin.gov or the commission at commission@dunedin.gov. Public comment remains available at commission meetings and monthly workshops at City Hall, and residents can submit comments through the e-comment portal on the agenda page. Meetings are livestreamed on Facebook, YouTube, the city website and Spectrum Cable 639.