Open Letter to the Administrators of Facebook's Constructive Conversations for Littleton Women
Dear Jan Huber OCallaghan, Erica Podgorni, Elieen Wedegartner, and Katie Carruth.
Soon after I pulled nomination papers to run for a seat on our town’s Select Board, I reached out to one of the members of your Facebook group—Constructive Conversations for Littleton Women (CCLW)—and asked her to keep an eye out for anything that might be published in your group about me. You see, I suspected that once word got out that I was seeking elected office in town that, again, CCLW would allow untrue claims to be made about me.
Within hours, my suspicions were confirmed. I received several screenshots containing false and defamatory statements, all of which cast doubt about my fitness for public office by placing me in a false light.
I know for a fact that at least one of you knows that these statements were false. Moreover, I have reason to believe that all four of you know, or should have known, that what was being alleged was based on lies. And yet, you allowed the defamatory words to remain on the page and, in letting the chips fall where they may, allowed speculative negative comments to pile up.
On Sunday evening, after much damage had been done to my reputation, I asked Jan who the administrators of the page were, on Monday afternoon she wrote, “Why do you ask?”
I replied, “Jan, To my mind, yours is not a serious question I'd suggest you consider why I'd be asking who is in control of what is permitted on that page, a page that you all banned me from a year ago. I'm truly disgusted.”
Her response: “Well, I for one, am doing my best to keep the conversations constructive, which is challenging. I am most interested in what the top 3 priorities of each of the candidates are. That's what I'd like to see focused on.”
My reply, “Your efforts are insufficient to counter the defamation that's occurring on the page you manage.”
Then, Jan wrote, “And how would you know that given that screenshots are against the rules as are reporting specific comments by specific people? Furthermore, this is something I volunteered to do. I am not a professional moderator nor to (sic) I strive to be. I am just doing what I can to try to contribute to constructive conversation. I'm no miracle worker.”
Jan’s evasive, distancing language gave me pause. Here was a moderator of a group with over two hundred members, ostensibly, women living in Littleton who have an interest in participating in “constructive conversations,” disclaiming nearly all responsibility for the content of these knowingly false posts and further asserting that only someone with god-like power would be able to effectively moderate the posts in CCLW.
I wrote, “No one's asking you to work miracles. I'm only suggesting you use some critical thinking skills and see how your failure to do so is allowing actionable speech to proliferate.”
We are living in dangerous and unstable times. People are having a harder and harder time knowing what to believe and when community members, such as yourselves, fail to quash false statements—about me or any other person who becomes fodder for your “constructive” conversations—you become the handmaidens of misinformation.
Truth matters, and by your willful disregard for the truth, you have damaged me.
While I’ve been given to understand that some remediation has occurred, that some of these scabrous untruths have been removed, the damage has been done, and the case law is clear.
Please take this open letter as my demand that you cease and desist from allowing future untruths to be published at CCLW. Furthermore, all past falsehoods—about me or anyone else you’ve allowed to be defamed at CCLW—ought to be removed.
I’ll reiterate: I’m truly disgusted,
Jenna