A NEWLY elected Kingston councillor is already facing backlash after publishing the name and workplace of a person she alleges has been criticising her online.
On 10 November, three days before being sworn in as a councillor, Jane Agirtan used her Facebook page to reveal the details of a person she believes authored an anonymous Reddit post about her. Agirtan published the details to her 3900 followers – The News understands that complaints about Agirtan’s post have been lodged with Kingston Council.
The Reddit post, published earlier this month, referenced a Herald Sun story which alleged Agirtan posted racist memes targeting Aboriginal people between 2014 and 2018. The Reddit post drew hundreds of comments criticising the newly-elected councillor.
Agirtan is defending her Facebook post, saying that the comments on the post were “hateful” and that the Reddit post has been “referred to e-safety on the grounds of adult cyber-abuse.” Agirtan says the poster wrote an “untrue and defamatory rant in relation to my election to council on Reddit where she had labelled me a bully, a racist, transphobe, and anti-vaxxer clearly seeking to defame, denigrate and facilitate targeted harassment against me by other users.”
Agirtan’s social media pages feature numerous posts criticising the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines. She has also made multiple posts about transgender issues – earlier this month she wrote on Instagram that “never before we’ve seen such alienation of genders with ongoing feminization of society driving more and more men into the conservative camp.” In February she published an Instagram post about LGBTQIA+ organisation Minus18 and the Safe Schools program under the headline “History of Groomer Politics”.
Agirtan says she has published “no private or identifying information” about the poster because the “now deleted Reddit post contained screenshots clearly showing public Instagram account – thus confirming her identity”, and the “full name and name of employer are clearly shown on her LinkedIn profile.”*
After being sworn in on 13 November, Agirtan posted an AI video of US President-elect Donald Trump talking about making “Kingston Council Great Again”. Agirtan defeated former deputy mayor Tracey Davies by roughly 500 votes to win Chicquita Ward.
In a statement, Kingston Council said it “does not have a role to play regarding behaviour prior to councillors taking the oath of office.”
*The News has removed the alleged identity of the Reddit poster from Agirtan’s response
First published in the Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News – 20 November 2024