Trolls and Vigilantes more prevalent on Florida Action Committee Forum
If you’ve been an avid follower of the Florida Action Committee forum, you’ve probably noticed that we’ve been receiving more comments from trolls, vigilantes or people simply posting nasty comments.This is likely the result of some of the public awareness campaigns we have been running over the last month or so.
As previously announced, FAC has been airing our short-form public service announcement videos as paid ads on YouTube Shorts. You can view the videos here: https://www.youtube.com/@FloridaActionCommittee/shorts
The videos have garnered more than 23,000 views in the last couple of months. This has been great in bringing awareness to our organization and spreading our message to the public. Naturally, not all people coming across the videos will share our point of view, and that’s fine. We welcome people to engage with our organization, challenge our perspective and hopefully become more informed about the laws and their effectiveness (or lack thereof). If we only communicate amongst ourselves, we will never have the opportunity to effectuate change.
Unfortunately, not all people who have differing points of view are kind or respectful. We know that and we expected that. Some people have taken the time to post nasty, threatening comments. A few have taken A LOT of time to post these comments.
As a consequence, we’ve had to spend more time moderating what gets posted to our forum. In the process, some comments might have slipped through which probably should not have. We’re sorry if anything that has slipped through has been offensive or triggering. This is new territory for us and we’re trying to balance the opportunity to debate people who have historically had the wrong impression about registrants, with keeping our site a safe and welcoming place for all stakeholders in this very polarizing topic.
To deal with the influx of new visitors, we’ve taken several steps to protect the safety and comfort of our community. First, we’ve posted our “Comment Policy” immediately above the form where users can post comments. While this won’t stop vigilantes intent on posting insults, it will hopefully curb it somewhat. Second, we are adding moderators to provide a second opinion to review certain comments that might be questionable. Third (and this has been a feature of our forum always, but something we are using more now), we capture the commenter’s IP address for every comment that’s posted to our site. Even if someone posts anonymously, there are certain items of metadata that can help us identify the source of a post. If we notice repeated violations of our comment policy, we can block the user from posting. If someone posts a direct threat, we can even provide that information to law enforcement.
The last step we are taking is bringing our readers (you) into the loop. It’s important for you to know why we are getting more unwelcome attention. It’s also important that we maintain our professionalism and dignity when dealing with these “new visitors”. If you come across a courteous comment from someone on the other side of this issue, respond politely, introduce facts, and engage in the type of dialogue that our public awareness campaigns were intended to foster. If you come across a comment that should not have been posted, don’t stoop to their level, let us know and we can remove it.
At least we know our public service announcements are getting attention, and that’s what we are trying to achieve.
Discover more from Florida Action Committee
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
I was very pleased to read this article. WE CANNOT CHANGE OPINIONS IF WE ONLY TALK WITH OURSELVES! FL has the most draconian rules for registrants in the nation, largely because the opposition is highly funded by bias wealth, DeSantos has shown no support for the citizens as registrants, and the voters in FL are uneducated to the fear-mongering, boogyman, and damage done to registrants and families who are living with this stigma. Homelessness for registrants in FL is recognized nationally. Academics, study after study, have shown that recidivism for this offense is extremely low; living near a school or a yard sign has no impact on recidivism. Because we have no good education program, politicians are unwilling to champion legislation that will begin to correct this injustice. I welcome the chance to help educate narrow minds, like that registrants include spectrums from urination in the forest, nudity, underage consensual petting, streaking, selfies, viewing illegal images, prostitution, other non-violent or non—victim offenses, to the other extreme of violent offenses. Our current plan largely endorsed by NARSOL and others to change one legal issue at a time, one state at a time is unworkable. There is no effective education program or partnerships with human rights activists in FL or nationwide. There is no national strategy for change because the public is uneducated on how much this violates human decency for many citizens, Christians, fathers, sons, brothers, grandfathers, veterans and retirees. That those released from confinement and treatment, are forbidden from parks and most housing, berated by signs on yards, prohibited from seeking shelter during emergencies, and et al is a travesty in this state and nation. I see FL Action Committee as the most effective and active reform agent in the country, which is still not enough because it lacks a national presence publicly or politically.
I was completely uneducated on the registry until a family member landed on it. As I do with most things, I started researching, looking for facts. That is how I found FAC’s website along with a few others. And while most people are not going to change their opinions, no matter what, I am hopeful it does get a few people who watch the videos or visit the site interested enough to look for the facts themselves.
Unfortunately I hate that that had to happen for you to see. When I got busted in 2007 I didn’t even know a registry existed. My case was statutory “rape.” I had an underage girlfriend when I was 20.
The only harm to my family was to be harassed and property damaged, at 3 am, by a Tic-Tock challenge, by banging on our door 6 times and running away,after defecating on the mat and on our door and on our ring ,police were called and the video, of the incident, nothing else ever happened to my family, I’m ready for the next one, been here 31 years and takes Tic-Tock to bring out the crazy’s ,as he is videoing his actions at my door…. Suggesting anything esle purely speculation on your part…..