Vancouver city council candidate criticized for deleting tweet history

A Vancouver city council candidate has been criticized for scrubbing his Twitter history, prompting a discussion of whether this is accepted practice for all politicians.

Brandon Yan, aOneCitycandidate, deleted all of his tweets prior to July 15, 2018, and the reaction on social media was swift.

In his own words

Yan defended his actions on Twitter, saying what he did as a 22-year-old does not reflect who he is today.

Hesayshe created his Twitter account as a personal accountand found conflicting information on what to do when transitioning to a professional account for a public persona.

"I was criticized for attempting to delete some things.I was being criticized for not leaving it up ... and if you leave it up, people can take things out of context," he toldThe Early Edition. "You're damned if you doand damned if you don't."

Common practice

It's commonpractice to sanitize your social media account when deciding to run for politcs, says Peter Chow-White,the director of the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University.

"Politics is impression management," he said. "So, there is a constant massaging and managing what the public sees about you."

However Chow-White said younger politicians, especially millennialswho grew up in a culture of social media and sharing culture,might have it a lot tougher than older politicians.Traditionally, politicians would present a carefully crafted persona when entering the public eye, but younger politicians can be at a disadvantage.

"People like Brandon, when they get into politics, their digital footprint is far bigger," he said.

"Millennials will have it a lot harder than baby boomers financially, economically and socially and it's just another example of how the bar has never been higher."

Those most critical of Yan's decision to delete his Twitter historyare the same people critical of OneCity's platform. But it also "reflects the unfortunate consequences of the pile-on culture" on social media," as theGeorgia Straight's Travis Lupick summarizedin a tweet:

"We're turning good, young people off politics."