Racist vigilantes on local FB page

[FromanEmpire]

I live in a small town with a military history. As such, we have had quite a few Afghan refugees settled here.

A few days ago, a woman posted to say that an Afghan refugee had been in the park and walking around watching her toddler. She turned away to feed her other child, and when she turned back, he was holding her toddler and walking off. She asked her sister who was with her to go and get the toddler back. Then, apparently, he said no to the sister several times and said he was taking the toddler home with him. Eventually, the toddler was returned.

Cue extensive outrage all over the Facebook page. Comments calling for riots and violence, comments locating the man involved, comments getting a few men together for a game of "human football"... Obviously people asked why she hadn't called the police and she said she had but they weren't interested.

Anyway, then there are posts of the man in different locations and people threatening to go after him.

Then, it turns out, the woman has partly lied and partly told half-truths about the whole things. Firstly, not a local Afghan refugee at all. Not local, on holiday. Not Afghan, police confirmed he's not Afghan but didn't say what he is. Not a refugee, here on holiday (we live in a touristy place). Police also confirmed it wasn't reported to them until the evening - and also that the report was made by a man. So, she didn't report to the police - just to Facebook.

It also turns out, the man was in the park with his own children (she made it sound like he was there alone) and that the toddler approached him, while the mum wasn't paying any attention, and asked to be picked up. And, of course, very strange that if a man were walking off with your toddler, you'd just ask him nicely to put them down...

Frankly, I feel really uncomfortable by this. This woman has blatantly lied and misled people to try and rile up a riot. I'm also scared by how many people were commenting incredibly racist things and calling for violence against (what turned out to be) an entirely innocent man. I'm really shocked, and I like where I live less now.

Thank you. It's very strange how one poster can derail a thread so completely.

We had similar a few months back. Seemingly, the person making allegations didn't exists or was incident rrported to police.

This is the technique though. Cause as much disruption as possible. Make people feel uneasy and insecure, distort fact and lie, turn every accusation back upon any opposition. 'Where there is harmony, we can bring discord', even to the calm waters of MN. These people are poisonous and want to spread that as far as they can. Apparently many are preparing to have an exciting weekend out on the streets, saving us from the migrant menace and saving themselves the expense of paying for some holiday entertainment.

This is the technique though. Cause as much disruption as possible. Make people feel uneasy and insecure, distort fact and lie, turn every accusation back upon any opposition. '

And when all else fails state or imply that only the terminally stupid could disagree with you. This is classic bullying.

What I find exceptionally disturbing - well, ok, one of the things - is that certain posters can literally have DOZENS of posts deleted / warnings on just one thread, and that happens thread after thread, yet they are not banned. It seems that the racist vigilantes are alive and well on MN too. Anyone else with, say, three or four warnings an hour would have been banned. But not some posters. Makes one wonder....

Yeah it’s such a pattern and so disruptive - it’s like they can’t stand to see a different viewpoint and want to make it as difficult as possible to have a discussion about. I don’t know where people find the energy.

Anyway I really feel for the bloke in the OP. Imagine explaining to your kids that the police are at your house (or hotel I guess, if he was a tourist) because someone saw you in the park…

That's rich. You're on AIBU FFS! 🤣

Yeah, you can't judge people on the fact they use FB if you're merrily posting away on MN 😁
(said by someone who's guilty of both)

Are there different rules if you subscribe to Mumsnet Premium?

I would imagine it is tricky to ban a user who has paid upfront as MNHQ would have to muck around refunding money. So maybe the bar for a ban is higher.

It's a very good point, well made 🤣
I think there are interesting posts on here, I usually just lurk and read advice to tricky dilemmas hoping I might learn something. However, like so many platforms now, it's becoming political and factional, which is the sas state of culture today.

As for FB, that's one beast I will never feed. I may drop MN too, like I dropped Quora, it does become boring and samey after a while if the same stuff just keeps coming up.

I doubt if there are different rules for Premium subscribers. I don't think you get a refund if you're banned, but I certainly would expect some sanctions against someone whose posts are repeatedly deleted for breaching the guidelines.

I'm on Facebook, rarely post, it was a godsend when my cat went missing. I may not have got her back had it not been for Facebook, someone saw my post on a local group and saw her on their ring doorbell and put two and two together. Within 4 days I had got her back (after 6 weeks of being missing).

When used properly Facebook is brilliant.