Some local residents are fighting back against Erie On Blast, a Facebook page which seems to be all about harassing and insulting people. It was started in December.
Some of the buzz on social media suggests that cyber bullying on the site lead to the death of a young Erie man over the New Year's Eve holiday. 12 News/SEE News investigated those claims. Police and sources close to the family say posts on the site were not what led to the young man's death. Still, the running conversation on facebook is sparking some positive action.
Zach Chylinski a student from Strong Vincent High School started a site called Get Rid of Erie On Blast. He's been overwhelmed by the response. His aim is to get people to report harassing comments to facebook so that the offensive Erie On Blast site gets taken down. "I made this page, hoping it would get reported," said Zach. "I expected fifty to seventy-five responses and I thought it would just go away, but it came back as Erie on Blast 2 and Erie on Blast Will Never Die, I never thought it would escalate to this level either."
Erie County District Attorney Jack Daneri says there's a fine line between freedom of speech and harassment. Daneri said, "You can post on a site that you don't like your Science teacher, you hate so and so, you hate people with red hair. The question is at what point do you direct those comments with intent to cause anguish to another person? Now you're moving toward a punishable offense."
A local woman has also created a site called Erie Off Blast, to counter the negative messages on the first site. Chylinski said, "She's doing an amazing job, she's probably saved a lot of people from ridicule and from what things posted about them on Erie Blast was doing.
All content © Copyright 2000 - 2013 WorldNow and WICU. All Rights Reserved.
