A northern Manitoba newspaper may be among the first newsgroups to abandon Facebook after growing weary of people plying their posts with racist and offensive comments.

The Thompson Citizen publicly announced on Wednesday that it had shut down its presence on the social networking site because they grew tired of offensive comments, specifically those targeting the First Nations community.

Editor John Barker wrote:

We won't mince words here. We're leaving because for some time commenters have been posting virulently racist anti-aboriginal comments on our page and tagging photos in a similar way, including our profile photo of the Thompson Citizen building this morning. It ends here. This newspaper is not going to stand by and let anti-aboriginal racists and haters spew their evil on a vehicle we're facilitating them using.

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Barker says the newspaper had been on Facebook for three years and had more than 2,800 “friends” when they made the decision to shut down the page. The comments in question, and everything else, were gone by Thursday morning.

Barker noted that the newspaper supports the right to free speech and “the exchange of ideas in a democracy,” making the decision to leave Facebook difficult.

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The Citizen still allows comments on stories on their website, with a warning similarly written to those on other news sites:

The Thompson Citizen welcomes your opinions and comments. We do not allow personal attacks, offensive language or unsubstantiated allegations. We reserve the right to edit comments for length, style, legality and taste and reproduce them in print, electronic or otherwise.

What do you think about the Citizen’s decision to shut down its Facebook page? Was it an overreaction to a common problem, or will more groups follow suit?

A hat tip to @Gramiq, who first brought this story to my attention.