Aussie Politician Threatens To Contact Employers of Satirical Article "Likers"

Chuq writes "Tasmanian Liberal candidate for Bass, Andrew Nikolic, was the subject of a satirical article by NewExaminer on Facebook. Nikolic didn't like it, which is understandable. However he then went to considerable lengths to identify the people who liked the article, find out their employers (via their Facebook profiles) and 'name and shame' them on a follow-up post on his own page. Andrew Nikolic has a history of poorly handling conflicting views on his Facebook page, resulting in creation of another page, 'Andrew Nikolic blocked me.'"

Not much of a politician

[crazyjj]

Doesn't he know that a real politician gets his enemies back in *secret*?

Get this guy out of politics

[Anonymous Coward]

As far as I'm concerned, any politician who gets in a hissy fit over political satire simply doesn't have the balls to be a politician, regardless of any actual policies. Move over and make way for someone who can take a bit of criticism.

The handlers are using handcuffs...

[samazon]

Having worked on a political campaign.... It's getting more and more difficult to keep the "nastygrams" away from the candidate and his/her family these days. When you're on the trail especially, it's important to make sure that (a) your candidate stays focused and (b) your candidate's family and friends know that lashing out against these attacks makes the candidate look worse. It's hard to do that when everybody's Facebooking away at home with private accounts (and fake accounts... sigh...) - suffice to say, if any politician reacts like that to something so petty on Facebook, what other unreasonable reactions will s/he have?

$0.02 - Nikolic needs a better campaign manager, if s/he is letting him do this kind of crazy shit.

Free speech cuts both ways

[Hentes]

You are free to express your opinions, but there are a few things to keep in mind. If you support an opinion by 'liking' it, you are basically supporting it with your name. It's like signing a petition: you surrender your anonymity in order to give more weight to the statement. But that will also mean that others disagreeing with you might like you less in the future, which is why you should only give your name to something you really agree with. This guy basically just republished the data others made publicly available on Facebook, which he is also free to do.

Re:Typical

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh did you think they where actually Liberals. When do Liberals ever do that. Its doublespeak as it always tends to be. These people never grow up.

Re:Get this guy out of politics

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

In his defense, a childish sense of spite, narcissistic fury in defense of self-image(ideally delusional), and spiteful vindictiveness in the face of criticism are very strong qualifications for most positions of authority...

Combine that with running on the 'war hero with strong ties to extraction industries' platform and a dose of good, old-fashioned Values, and we could have a real winner!

Re:This guy's a liberal?

[tgd]

he's a "big L" Liberal.

Confusingly in Australia, the Liberal Party are the conservatives and the Labor Party are the liberals (with the Greens to the left of them).

Of course, our Liberal Party would probably be to the left of the US's congressional democrats on most issues..

--Q

That's the real issue. The US is so conservative, our labels don't sync up well with the rest of the world, especially in the last 25 years. Case in point: Reagan's positions would make him center or left of center in the *Democrat* party these days. The US right has more in common now with the Taliban than what was traditionally considered "conservative" for most of the US' history.

Whining like a little bitch

[Rogerborg]

Wow, nice way to bust "macho Australian" and "tough vet" stereotypes in one fell swoop. Please let him be a "defence of marriage" type as well, those are always the funniest when they get busted trawling for trade in airport bathrooms.

Re:Free speech cuts both ways

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually no. There is no such thing as "free speech" in Australia.

Of course there is. Free speech is a human right, not something granted by the government. If free speech is abridged, it's a human rights violation. Ergo, there is free speech in Australia, but there may also be human rights violations in Australia.