Drama unfolded on social media yesterday afternoon when users attacked a Facebook group of 5,000 landlord members. They took control, changed the name, and started trolling landlords. These users purportedly “evicted” the group owner and any landlords they could find and seized control. The group name LANDLORDS BEWARE OF BAD TENANTS had been on the platform for more than 11 years and was run by the user named Ada E Langer.
As the group grew and required more moderation, Ada needed help with it. The people she’d given access to the group had not been overly vetted, so there was a large mix of those who’d do harm and regular users. One day, while looking for a moderator, Ada granted username Ashely Hope Nelson moderator rights, and interestingly administrator rights. This small mistake would allow Ashely to take over the entire group.
As long ago as last week I’d started to notice a user in that group, Giovanni-Paul Santonato, was causing a great deal of havoc. He’d post about his landlord in a very erratic fashion and even mentioned that his girlfriend’s passing was connected. The posts became more and more heated while it also seemed no one was in the group to moderate this. Many were asking where the group administrator was. The posts seemed tragic and at once filled with pure rage.
After a week of these posts dominating the group, Ada posted that she’d be leaving the group and that she needed help. Not many stepped up to help, but when she chose people to help her, she chose the wrong users. This, of course, could have been a coordinated attack on the group to give Ashley the opening, or it could have been a moment of opportunity. Either way, once Ashely had gained administrative power, she began inviting and making admins of various users sympathetic to her cause.
What unfolded was a complete change of the group. Ashely would immediately change the group’s name to “Tenants Rights Group.” It is important to note that there are many groups for tenant rights on Facebook.
After the name change, Ashely immediately posted that she’d taken over the group and remade it as a “tenant’s rights group.”
What unfolded were many memes related to landlords were like ticket scalpers. Some posted things like “Landlords create homelessness.”
Images of Mao Zedong and communist ideas and tropes from all users with power. There was even a not-so-subtle switch of background to pink. Those who had taken over the group were enjoying themselves. One new admin posted a poem to landlords that received great attention from the incoming newly minted tenant users:
This poem by user Grant Higgenson was noticed by a SOLO member and posted in our own group. Since Grant was a member of SOLO’s Facebook Group, he took notice of this and spared no time posting it for others to mock. In one comment he says “to be fair, the group [SOLO] is 90% boomers who either use a photo of their pets of something from 1985 clip art as their profile pic.”
This “win” would embolden Ashely and friends to turn their attention or other groups to join, take over and remake those groups too.
The inevitable pivot would come when the high of victory wore off and Ashely realized that she was the admin of a group of 5,000 users. She’d realized that this group could do more than just hate landlords. She offered a rally cry to “target other groups” and that if we were to “come across a lib at least try to be nice.”
It’s a stark reminder there are many that will fight the very idea of being a landlord. They may not be tenants, but the idea that “rent seeking” and capitalism exists at all is unpalatable. Some are part of a movement to end capitalism. They don’t realize that the relationship of the housing provider and tenants is one that should benefit one another. The small ownership landlord will always be far more sympathetic to tenants than large corporations. Let’s face it, many small landlords are tenants themselves. While there are bad actors on all sides of this housing crisis, the two groups that should be together fighting issues like Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) backlogs should be tenants and landlords.
For many this may be a sign of the further desperation that continues to grip the housing market for both landlords and tenants, while the Landlord Tenant Board remains backlogged and ineffective and the antiquated Residential Tenancies Act stays in effect.
Some updates after a bit of discussion:
This is essentially how the takeover played out on the group. The order of how this occurred is very specific to how user Ashely was able to take over and gain control. User Ada needed to leave the group to lose control over it. Perhaps the biggest mistake here was in step #2.
1. Admin user (Ada) decides to let a user help with moderation
2. Admin user grants admin to the new moderator (Ashely) mistakenly (should have made them a moderator)
3. Now Ashely has Admin, kicks/bans any other admins if there were any, invites a number of new admins
4. Some sort of conflict must have ensued – original admin (Ada) leaves the group, that’s confirmed
5. Ashely and friends have full control
It’s been suggested that User Ada should contact Facebook for some kind of remedy or fight for the group back. She could take it to Facebook. On the other hand, there isn’t really much of Facebook to take “it” to. Facebook is an unmoving, silent monolith. Outside of their canned options, Facebook is hard to communicate with. And, I expect there is not canned option for “I gave someone admin access to my group, they took over, pushed me out and I left. Do something.” Even if she didn’t throw in the towel on this stuff, the road to her getting any remedy from Facebook over this would be difficult.
We are hoping to connect with her and help out if we can.
Solo Ontario advocates for small landlords and does so at no cost to them. Many of our policies serve to promote positive engagement between good landlords and good tenants. If you are interested in learning more, please register with the link above and, as always, contributions are welcome.
