Politicians and employers checking social media records
Matt MacKnight had hoped to enter provincial politics in Nova Scotia. Like many politicians, and would be politicians before him, things seemed to be going well, but then his social media activity caught up with him.
Although the Liberal Party would not comment on exactly what the problem was, but the potential candidate was suddenly dropped by the provincial Liberal party on Monday.
Liberal Party campaign chair Chris MacInnes, in an emailed statement wrote that after a thorough review of Macknight’s comments, “it’s clear he can no longer stand as a candidate for the Liberal campaign”.
Some media outlets however have said the reason is apparently over comments posted on twitter in 2013 in which he berated an unamed customer at a store where he worked at the time. He used an expletive to describe the person and then the hastag “downsyndrome”.
Macknight has since apologized for the comments saying he “has grown and matured” since the incident. He has also transformed his public twitter account into a private one and has deleted his Facebook campaign page.
About a year ago the Saskatchewan provincial New Democratic Party (NDP) lost two candidates over “unacceptable” social media posts.
In 2015, an NDP candidate in Winnipeg, Manitoba was asked to quit by the provincial party over comments he posted on social media.
Employers reject hires over social media
In addition to politicians being dropped for social media comments, many employers are dropping potential hires after checking their online accounts. One report says as many as 55% of job applicants are rejected because of online comments.
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