City officials warned against commenting with shared account

Advice comes in wake of Internet attacks on staff

“Comments are not to be posted” on Boston Globe stories using a shared subscription for the Boston City Council, councilors and their staff were told Tuesday, after revelations that a shared council account had been used to lob a barrage of Internet attacks on public officials.

“Central Staff will be monitoring activity on the account and reporting any future comments,” Central Staff Director Michelle Goldberg wrote in a Tuesday afternoon e-mail to councilors and their aides. “Access to the news is important for us, as Councilors and staffers, to stay on top of current events and do our jobs, so I’m asking everyone to take care to protect and respect our shared resources.”

The Globe reported last week that, under the screen name “Interested Party,” one or more people using a shared City Council account had posted hundreds of comments ranging from snarky to offensive. The account took particularly sharp aim at Mayor Michelle Wu, her staff, and 11 of 13 members of the Boston City Council.

The revelations that the comments appear to have been posted by one or more councilors or council employees only deepened tensions on a legislative body already riven by personal and political differences. Councilor Julia Mejia, one of the most common targets of attack, told the Globe last week that the posts made her feel “really uncomfortable, and in many ways unsafe.”

Upset over the account also surfaced in person during last week’s council meeting, when Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson lamented the toxic state of city politics and “all of the hurtful things that were said.”

“Now this article. They want us to die? They want us to disappear?” she asked, referring to a comment on a story about a missing East Boston woman and a letter from six city councilors pressing for more information, in which Interested Party declared, “I wish these 6 city councilors would go missing.”

“I’m telling you right now that people are human beings and we don’t deserve it,” Fernandes Anderson said at the meeting.

Several dozen people who work on the fifth floor of City Hall had access to the account, making it difficult to identify the person, or people, who used it to post comments. The Globe learned about the account from City Hall sources, confirmed the connection to the e-mail address with them, and later corroborated it independently.

The comment account has not posted since the Globe story published April 25.

The “Interested Party” comment account was linked to a @boston.gov e-mail address, which was one of two shared Council accounts. The boston.gov account has been canceled, Goldberg wrote in the email, and council staff is updating the password to the other shared council account, which is tied to a @cityofboston.gov email address.

Goldberg also wrote Tuesday that the account is for councilors and staff only, and that the log-in credentials “are not to be shared with friends, family, or anyone who does not work for City Council.”

In response to Globe queries, all 13 councilors said they had not authored comments on the account.

Councilor Brian Worrell, who was among the targeted councilors, has called for an investigation into who used the account.

And Councilor Kendra Lara, another target, told the Globe last week that “this kind of divisive rhetoric has persisted on the Council this session and we’ve seen no leadership from the Council President.”

Council President Ed Flynn, who was called an offensive nickname in one comment from the Interested Party account, told the Globe last week he has tried to “promote a culture where councilors, their staff and central staff are back in the building, working hard on quality of life issues, and maintaining their professionalism toward all.”

Asked Tuesday whether he was considering an investigation, Flynn said “we are continuing to look into this situation, and considering different options.” He is also looking to implement an anti-bullying policy.

“We can all disagree without being disagreeable,” Flynn told his colleagues in an e-mail last week.