Report: Globe account shared by Boston city councilors and staff has been attacking local leaders in the comments section

The calls are apparently coming from inside the house.

Or, rather, the vitriol in the Globe‘s comments section.

A person, or several people, with access to a Boston Globe subscription shared by city councilors and their staff has been reportedly using the account to attack members of the council and Mayor Michelle Wu online in the newspaper’s comments section for more than a year. 

According to The Boston Globe, the missives made under the screen name “Interested Party” range from offensive and derogatory to banal and snarky to pointed and even threatening. The account is reportedly linked to a shared council email address using the @boston.gov domain with a shared password, and several dozen people have access to the subscription.

The comments by “Interested Party” have at times violated the newspaper’s guidelines for the comments section, according to the Globe. Frequent targets are Wu, her staff, members of the City Council (particularly the elected officials of color), as well as Black leaders, institutions, and neighborhoods in the city.

In one instance, according to the Globe, someone using the account called the more liberal members of the City Council “progressive anti white nutjobs,” and in another, writing in reference to a story about some council members pressing for more information about the investigation into a missing East Boston woman, “Interested Party” wrote: “I wish these 6 city councilors would go missing.”

“To know that someone from the inside is causing more hostility towards me in particular makes me feel really uncomfortable, and in many ways unsafe,” Councilor Julia Mejia told the Globe.

At least one city councilor, Brian Worrell, is calling for an investigation into the account, according to the newspaper.

Only two city councilors, according to the Globe, seem to have avoided attacks from the people, or person, commenting using the account — Erin Murphy and Frank Baker. Both elected leaders told the Globe they have never used the account to leave comments.

The newspaper reportedly learned about the account from City Hall sources. 

Read the full report at the Globe.

Dialynn Dwyer

Dialynn Dwyer is a reporter and editor at Boston.com, covering breaking and local news across Boston and New England.

 

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