Stu believed he had been treated unfairly after he was blocked from the comments section of the Village of Harrison Hot Springs’ website. Stu was told by the Community Services Manager that one of his recent comments posted on its website breached the Village’s Moderation Policy.

After investigating his complaint, we determined that several key principles of administrative fairness were overlooked when the decision to block his account was made. Stu’s account was blocked without notice, the Village did not provide him with reasons for its decision nor did it let him know he could seek a review of the decision to block his account.

We learned that the moderation service was provided by an external provider, not the Village. We proposed that the Village develop and implement its own online engagement policy embedded with fairness principles which it agreed to do.