Full post:
Official Find Madeleine Campaign
After talking with Kate and Gerry yesterday, we
have decided to delete our Twitter account and
focus on Facebook. They agree it's time to
remove ourselves from a place that allows so
much toxic content to be directed at us and does
not permit us the ability to protect ourselves
from people who want to damage the search for
Madeleine.
When I started our Facebook and Twitter accounts
in 2008, I convinced Kate and Gerry it was a
great way to raise awareness. Since that time, I
have witnessed overwhelming kindness. There is
no doubt that the good far outweigh the bad. The
vast majority of people care about Madeleine
deeply and want to see her come home to her
family where she belongs.
I have been dismayed, however, at some of the
hatred and sheer viciousness directed at Kate
and Gerry through our social media accounts for
no logical reason at all. At times, it has had
me in tears. It is hard to accept that some
people can be so cruel to a family that has
already experienced the worst pain imaginable.
* Further, in the past three weeks on Twitter,
we have found ourselves in the uncomfortable
position of being expected to "follow" people
who align themselves with accounts that abuse us
in the most vile ways on a regular basis. I
believe individuals and social media accounts
who do not block people who abuse others are
condoning that abuse and providing a platform
for it. I blocked those accounts to shield us
from the abuse and negativity, and I was
publicly called out for it (unfairly and with
the whole truth not being told). Because I was
bullied into turning off the abuse protection
feature Twitter provides, this has left us
vulnerable to continued abuse on Twitter. As a
result, deleting our Twitter account is the only
option left to protect ourselves and the search
for Madeleine.
I want to thank a member of our team who took on
Twitter the past year. She has done a brilliant
job and was able to focus on it much more than I
could. She highlighted many other missing
children and she was able to create
relationships with other missing children's
families to offer support. She will take on a
new role here on Facebook for us--where we will
highlight more missing children and offer our
support.
Thank you to all who come here to support our
campaign and most of all Madeleine. SHE is what
is important, and our job is to get her home.
~FM Webmaster
