Canadian Official Escorted From House For Others' Facebook Comments

New submitter zayyd writes "The CBC reports that publicly-elected Gerry Rogers, member of the Provincial Government for Newfoundland and Labrador, 'has been removed from the house of assembly for refusing to apologize for comments made by other users on a Facebook group of which she had been added to as a member.' Rogers was unwillingly added to a Facebook Group which included comments of death threats aimed at Premier Kathy Dunderdale from other users. From the article: 'Dunderdale said her government understands how Facebook groups work, and she said it is up to every MHA to monitor the comments posted on Facebook groups to which they belong.' Facebook's policies for Groups are somewhat clear, even if they don't actually answer the question of 'Can I prevent people from adding me to a new group?'"

Comments

That doesn't seem like a good system

[PhamNguyen]

She was removed for "contempt", for refusing to apologize. This seems like a misuse of that kind of procedure. Contempt should be for, for example, swearing at another politician in the chambers. Being able to remove elected politicians on such a slim pretext is very dangerous to democracy.

Proper form of apology

[Attila Dimedici]

The proper form that the apology should have taken is this, "I am sorry that anyone was offended because someone added me to a Facebook Group that included tasteless comments, comments that may constitute illegal threats of violence, made by someone else. I do not condone such language."