Politicians Are No Longer Friends With Facebook

If you ever wondered whether the politicians who pop up on Facebook are real or just puppets run by glasses-wearing lackeys eating Cheetos, this latest snafu should sort things out for you: a number of Australian pollies have ended up red-faced after the dirty laundry they aired on Facebook inadvertently ended up broadcast to the whole world. Sadly, said dirty laundry was not quite of the “snapped vomiting while doing a backflip at the office Christmas party variety” but, well, beggars can’t be choosers, can they?

As sites like Facebook and MySpace become increasingly popular, more politicians are creating profiles to engage with constituents and the community at large.

But, without knowing exactly what they are doing, MPs are getting themselves in to trouble.

NSW Nationals leader Andrew Stoner’s Facebook site showed him telling off his teenage daughter.

Others who have been caught out online are former high-flying foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer, who was branded “pompous” by his son, and Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who suffered from a less than flattering photograph posted on Facebook by a blogger.

The Stoner story is the best: his 17 year-old daughter posted some “paaaartaaaaay!” shots featuring one friend face down and drooling, and Stoner’s wife logged in to his profile (naughty!) and wrote “Not cool, Gem” on the photo comments – enter stage left, 391 of Stoner’s friends! His response?

“It’s a massive stuff-up all round,” Mr Stoner said.

Top work! Ladies and gentlemen of Australia, we give you the people who are running this country!