By Rida Vaquas, Clarion editor and outgoing NCG member
In January, The Clarion reported that Momentum Youth and Students (a now defunct body) had been shut down, owing to bringing Momentum into disrepute on social media. As we highlighted, the vast majority of the elected Momentum Youth and Students Committee never had any access to the social media accounts belonging to the organisation.
How curious it is to then receive a notification that the Facebook page of Momentum Youth and Students has changed its name to Momentum for the Many and is now promoting a slate for an internal Momentum election! Some former Momentum Youth and Students Committee members are rather perplexed as to who made this decision, and to whom are they accountable. It goes without saying that using organisational resources, including profile and reach that were built up in the period where the account was associated with Momentum, in order to intervene in an internal election is anti-democratic in spirit.
We’re left wondering how well this bizarre manoeuvre sits with Momentum’s own election guidelines that “All informal social media forums, discussion groups, or facebook pages which use Momentum’s name must be fair and even-handed in the publicity they give to respective candidates’ campaigns”. Perhaps once you have changed your name, no such rules apply…
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