Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the advent, acceptance and increasing use of social media worldwide, governments are becoming involved using Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and other social media sites to promote information sharing and to communicate with residents.
Our government has also joined the social media trend. GNWT websites and government Facebook pages are popping up in more and more places. This is encouraging, but have we as a government ensured that there are consistent guidelines and policies for GNWT-sponsored social media. It doesn’t seem that way. It’s another case of us joining the crowd, moving too fast and not considering the effect and the implications of our actions.
Let me give you an example. Recently I discovered a GNWT sponsored and developed Facebook page with a number of likes on the page. For those of you Facebook luddites, a like indicates support for the person, business or organization. A like on a Facebook page is prominently displayed and can influence readers to support the person or the organization or to use the business. It can also be a selling tool. I’ve found private businesses liked on more than one GNWT-sponsored Facebook page. This is inappropriate, Mr. Speaker.
A government must not only be impartial, but must be seen to be objective and impartial. As a government, we should not be showing favouritism to any one business over another. Additionally, there’s the issue of responding to and making comments within the social media sites. Any comments posted on a GNWT Facebook page or webpage reflect the government’s view. Are the administrators of these pages given any guidelines on how to respond to comments, post comments and so on?
There seems to be a gap in policy development here. Facebook pages are initiated throughout the government and by many different departments, but do we as a government have any policies or guidelines to assist those people in their development of webpages and Facebook pages? It appears not. We often use contractors to do things like develop Facebook pages and websites. Do they have any policies or guidelines to follow? It appears not.
We have a chief information officer and we have an information policy gap needing to be fixed. This is a job for his office. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Colleagues, before we go on, I’d like to welcome former Premier Floyd Roland back to the House today. Welcome back, Floyd.
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The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
