One of the more interesting and indeed laughter inducing aspects of the lockdown that the UK government has imposed in order to fight the Chinese Coronavirus is that there has been an increasing use of sometimes insecure communications technology by local authorites. The use of this technology such as applications like Zoom for example, has provided ample opportunity for people to troll and heckle councillors who make decisions that are unwelcomed by local people.

A good example of this comes from Somerset where members of a local council that was discussing via Zoom, new roads and sewage systems for a housing development that they approved despite a lot of objections from locals got heavily trolled and mocked during the online meeting. Late last year South Somerset District Council approved a development of over 700 new homes even though local people had expressed objections to what one local councilor called a ‘tsunami’ of housing that will engulf local villages.

According to a report on the Somerset Live website (h/t Guido Fawkes), the meeting was constantly disrupted by people flooding the Zoom discussion with adult content and also pretending to be council members.

Somerset Live said:

A council meeting held using video call technology was nearly suspended after it was trolled with obscene adult content.

South Somerset District Council has begun to hold virtual meetings via Zoom video calling to allow councillors to make decisions on urgent matters (including planning applications) until public meetings can resume after the coronavirus lockdown.

The council’s area south committee met on Wednesday afternoon (April 8) to discuss road improvements being made as part of plans for 800 homes in southern Yeovil.

But the meeting almost had to be suspended early on after a number of individuals disrupted proceedings with rude words and images.

Several users dialled in with adult-themed nicknames – including ‘Ben Dover’ and ‘Mike Coxlong’ – with swear words being directed at a member of council staff.

On at least one occasion, adult content could be heard playing in the background while members of the public’s microphones were on (they were subsequently muted en masse).

And one user shared an image of two men kissing in the middle of a presentation of improvements planned for one of Yeovil’s roundabouts.

Councillor Peter Seib also claimed he had been forced to remove one user from the call after they posed as Councillor David Gubbins, the ward member for Yeovil Westlands.

Try as I might, I find it very difficult to feel sorry for the councilors who have been trolled and heckled in this manner. The council and the councilors themselves decided to ride roughshod over local objections to this unwanted housing development, one of many that are starting to blight rural areas and not just in Somerset. It is in a way fitting that they were discomforted by local people who feel that the council has pushed their valid objections to this development to one side. Because this was a local issue and was not widely publicised outside of the local area, I suspect that the trolls and hecklers who had a go at the council during the online meeting were not outsiders but more than likely locals who are fed up with their piss taking local council.

The lockdown that we are experiencing has had the effect of making local council decision makers much more visible to and accessible to the public, which is as it should be, therefore more people are starting to both question and mock their local authority apparatchiks. Some are using the greater visibility afforded by technology to challenge councils with facts, figures and solid data, as they should do, whilst others are expressing their disgust at local authority activity by other means such as mockery or as we’ve seen in this Somerset case, unwanted erotica.

The lockdown and the related increased use of technology that the public has access to by councils is having the positive effect of exposing what some councils are up to and is also allowing the public to see clearly when local authorities are not acting in the interests of local people. In the case of South Somerset District Council, by approving this housing development they have gone against the interests of those in the South Yeovil area and they are quite rightly being mocked and trolled for doing so.

While I cannot condone the sending of erotica to those who do not request it or do not want it, it is right and proper that local councils are held to account by local people during council meetings whether they are held in person or online and councils should be held to account even if it involves the sort of mockery that makes councilors uncomfortable. After all if you are an elected person and you crap from a great height on some or all of the people that elected you then it is only right that you catch some peaceful flak for doing so.