State Member for Wallsend, Ms Sonia Hornery MP, has called on local residents to show some love to a local business after a post on Facebook went viral earlier this week.
On Monday night, a post in a local residents group went viral claiming that a local business had made disparaging comments about a group of young people who were out with their disability service provider.
The post received more than 10,000 shares in a matter of hours and many people made disparaging comments and threats towards the owner and staff at Donut King Wallsend.
The post was subsequently deleted but the damage to the local business had been done. A statement was released by the business owner last night responding to the accusations and advising that legal action has been instigated against the original poster.
Ms Hornery has called on local residents to get down to Donut King at Wallsend and support the business and for everyone to think about the consequences of hitting the share button without knowing the full story.
Quotes attributable to Member for Wallsend, Sonia Hornery
“This is a classic case of trial by social media. One person posts something so therefore it must be true and it gets shared without anyone questioning the story.”
“Now we see a local business hurting because of the post. The young staff who work there have been subjected to verbal abuse and have really been affected by the unwanted attention cause by the social media post.”
“I know how easy it is just to click the share button without thinking about the whole story, I have done it myself.”
“It would be great if everyone who wrongly shared the original post dropped into Donut King at Wallsend, apologised and picked up some donuts to help out the local business.”
“I would also encourage everyone to think before hitting the share button, even if you have the best of intentions. We have seen far too many witch hunts conducted by social media.”
“Once it is posted, it never really disappears and the hurt caused can have serious consequences.”