Salisbury Council Watch Facebook page closes down because of trolls
One of Adelaide’s biggest community Facebook pages is shutting down, with its founders exhausted by having to deal with trolls.
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Administrators of a popular community Facebook page have decided to shut it down – just weeks after a council obtained legal advice over comments posted about its mayor.
One of the founders of Salisbury Council Watch has announced the page — established in 2018 to monitor Salisbury Council — will close on Friday.
Salisbury resident Carol Scott told the page’s 396 followers that she and the other founder, Sandy Holloway, had decided to call it quits after relentless posts by trolls.
“I no longer have the time to dedicate to running it properly and am completely fed up with being told how to run my own page,” she said.
“Sandy and I worked extremely hard to have a valuable community minded page, that people could have healthy, interesting debates.
“But unfortunately that didn’t turn out the way it was meant to.”
Ms Scott said she not believe the page — which has featured fiery debates about the $43.8 million Salisbury community hub, sale of public reserves for housing and aviation training at Parafield Airport — “is adding value to the community any longer”.
“I truly wish it didn’t have to come to this, but I along with Sandy did try,” she said.
The decision to close the page comes two months after Salisbury Council obtained legal advice over comments posted about Mayor Gillian Aldridge.
Elected members met behind closed doors in November to discuss whether to seek damages for defamation.
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They decided to leave the decision to Ms Aldridge, who opted not to pursue legal action.
Her son, Mark Aldridge, was involved in a prominent court case over Facebook posts which set a legal precedent when he was ordered to pay $100,000 in damages.
Mr Aldrige was found to be liable for comments about a Parafield small business owner which were made by followers of his Facebook page.
The Salisbury Council Watch Facebook group is one of several run by residents within metropolitan Adelaide.
Others include the Onkaparinga Council Watch, which has been credited with revealing maladministration within Onkaparinga Council.