EDITORIAL: Social media ‘trolls’ pose legitimate danger

Sometimes we make what we think are clever social media posts in our quest for more “likes” and “shares,” certain that our status online will be enhanced when all of our “friends” revel in the glory of our wit.

Those posts, while often more annoying than clever, are innocuous enough.

It’s when some of the trolls online use social media as their way of spreading rancor, hatred and false information, though, that the inherent dangers of various social media platforms are revealed. Southwest Georgians got a whiff of such misuse recently when said trolls used Facebook to spread misinformation about staffing at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital.

Phoebe officials will be the first to admit that, yes, there are people in the community who have developed an enmity with the region’s largest health care provider over the years, and they’re going to use every opportunity — real or rumor — to spread negative “news” about the hospital. But when these people use a forum like Facebook or other social media outlets to spread “news” that just is not true, and, more dastardly, news that might possibly harm individuals in the region needing health care, well, they’ve taken their place among the lowest of a community’s low.

Last week some person(s), obviously seeking to damage Phoebe’s reputation, posted false information about the hospital, claiming that “only four nurses would be working in the main Phoebe emergency room” and “only two nurses would be working in the Phoebe North emergency room” over the weekend. The post was labeled an “Emergency Room Advisory” and was written in such a way as to appear that it came from a legitimate news source. The post also included a “message” from Phoebe encouraging people in need of emergency care “not to seek treatment at Phoebe hospitals.”

The logical among us would recognize the absurdity of such statements immediately and dismiss them out of hand. But because so many people now use Facebook and other social media as their primary forms of entertainment, news and information, they’ve grown accustomed to believing pretty much anything they see on the medium. That some unscrupulous persons with supposed axes to grind against the hospital first created the phony posts and then spread them to “followers” who are more inclined to believe anything they read on social media than to actually check out the veracity of such posts created a legitimate danger.

Phoebe President/CEO Scott Steiner, who got to experience perhaps one of the first salvos of many he’ll see as new chief of the hospital, responded immediately with a news release meant to allay fears expressed by some who read the posts and took them at face value.

“It is clear from the comments on these posts. that many Facebook users believe this message is factual,” Steiner said. “This post is not true, and it is irresponsible of these sites to make up and post information that might lead an innocent person to bypass the closest emergency room and drive 45 minutes away to receive necessary care. False and misleading posts about Phoebe are common on these sites. Typically, we simply ignore those posts and focus our energy and attention on providing quality care to patients, but this post is different. It literally could put lives at risk, and the right thing for us to do is to let the people of southwest Georgia know they should not believe it.”

Steiner went on to point out in a release he sent to media and posted online that Phoebe emergency rooms operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He added that anyone in need of emergency care should call 911 or seek that care immediately at the closest emergency center.

For some, the Phoebe response bordered on overkill, making too much of a “harmless” Facebook post. But if one person who’d read the post and believed it drove miles in any direction to find emergency care that was “unavailable,” given Phoebe’s supposed encouragement for patients to seek help elsewhere, and that person either suffered irreparable damage because of the length of time it took to get to another facility or even got into a deadly accident while hurrying to a health care facility much farther away, then a non-response by Phoebe would have been tantamount to dereliction of the hospital’s duty to serve the health care needs of people in this region.

That trolls like the ones who wrote and spread this message exist in a social media-mad world is bad enough. Even worse, though, are the people who actually believe their poisonous posts.

— The Albany Herald Editorial Board