NJ mayor to phase out city's Facebook page due to 'bullying messages,' threats

LAMBERTVILLE, N.J. (1010 WINS) -- A New Jersey mayor plans to delete her city's Facebook page amid an onslaught of "bullying messages" and threats on the platform.

In an op-ed published in the New Hope Free Press earlier this week, Lambertville Mayor Julia Fahl said an "organized group of Lambertville residents have threatened myself and my property, called my employer to advocate I be fired, printed signs to hang in windows saying 'Julia Must Go,' [and] sent fliers around the community accusing me of multiple ethical improprieties and federal crimes."

Members of the group have also "publicly compared me to convicted sexual predators" and posted memes "advocating I kill myself," she wrote.

"I grew up as a gay kid in the early 2000s in Albuquerque, New Mexico," she wrote. "I say this because I know, intimately, what it's like to be bullied."

While the bullying has been "that of only a few members of our community," Fahl wrote that it is "incumbent on each of us to push back against this type of bullying that is misrepresenting itself as civic engagement."

"Bullying on Facebook is NOT engaging in politics," she said. "We must push back on this bullying not only to ensure that people in the future will continue to agree to volunteer their time for this community, but, more importantly, because people — including our community's children — are watching."

To counter the bullying, Lambertville will phase out its Facebook page and use emails, texts and phone calls to communicate with residents instead, she added.