February 8, 2021 — The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to revisit an agreement with a social media contractor whose activity on the right-wing website Parler caused a stir in December.
Late last year, the sheriff’s request to approve a three year contract with Liz Barney for social media, web design and training, appeared on the board’s agenda. It came out on facebook that Barney had a Parler account, where she had shared or echoed material stating that masks are a symbol of Antifa, that Donald Trump won the election, and an article about Rashida Tlaib, with a comment attached to it that said, “Where is Mossad when you need them?” Barney did not write the article or the comment, but this was shortly after the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, whomthe New York Timesreported was a primary target of the Israeli intelligence service Mossad, widely believed to be responsible for the assassinations of other scientists.
A dozen letters came in to the board expressing dismay about a county social media professional being active on a site where white supremacist groups like the Proud Boys flourished. The item was pulled, but it’s coming before the board again tomorrow, as a one-year agreement for two-thirds of the total possible compensation in the original contract.
Sierra Wooten, of the Mendocino Coast BIPOC, Black Indigenous People of Color group, was one of the people who wrote a letter in December. We caught up on Saturday, for an update on her concerns since the insurrection at the Capitol and Parler being deplatformed.