Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante defends her decision to block comments on her social media accounts… with an X-rated post.
She posted screenshots of vulgar names attributed to her on the platform on Wednesday morning and claims that the comments on her posts have been dominated by insults for months, to the point that she has decided to block them.
Opposition Leader Aref Salem and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association have criticized Mr.me Plant for limiting freedom of expression by disabling comments on X and allowing comments on Instagram only from people or organizations mentioned in his posts.
They say elected officials who use social media should be prepared to hear their constituents’ comments on those platforms.
Mme Plante says some people may believe there is a fundamental right to insult someone and normalize violence online, but she disagrees. Her statement on X is closed to comments.
The mayor’s press secretary, Catherine Cadotte, indicated in a written response to The Canadian Press that “the Montreal mayor’s team has limited the response options in comments under her publications on the social network X in order to limit the discriminatory, violent, racist, harassing, hateful, homophobic, disrespectful, sexist and defamatory remarks that are unfortunately found on the platform.”
“Although all of the Mayor of Montreal’s digital platforms are places for discussion, it is essential that the tone of the exchanges remains respectful,” she added.
In an interview with The Canadian Press, Mr. Salem said that social media is one of the only ways for citizens to interact with the mayor.
Montrealers can voice their concerns in person during question period at city council meetings, but they only have 90 seconds.
“Having a social media feed is about connecting with the population and asking their opinion,” said the opposition leader. “It has to be an interaction. That’s not how democracy works. It’s not ethical to prevent the population of Montreal from interacting with the mayor.”
Mr. Salem argued that Mr.me Plante could instead deal with online harassment by blocking individual accounts or reporting them to the police.
“When you decide to be a public figure, it goes hand in hand with the position,” he said. “When you want to be representative of the population, you have to be representative of the entire population.”