There is a fake Facebook page that has been commenting as the City of St. Charles on Facebook. Please be aware if you see any off-color comments, it is not the City making those statements. Two versions of the page have been shut down. But it’s possible another attempt will be made to bring it back in yet another form, modified just enough to fool Facebook.
How Can You Tell the Real City Page from the Fake Page?
- The official City of St. Charles page is verified by Facebook and displays the check mark after our page name:
- And if you look real closely, you will notice a phony page probably has a subtle misspelling in the name, maybe a missing period after “St.” or a missing “L” in Illinois.
How Can Someone Do This?
By categorizing this page as a “Parody Page/Just for Fun,” it gives the page owner more leeway in the free speech territory. (Similar to people/topics covered by late night talk shows and in Saturday Night Live skits.)
What is the City’s Stance on This?
We fully support free speech. But we don’t support someone knowingly misrepresenting themselves as an official government organization and purposely misleading the public. When a Facebook page has a name that is so close to ours, it confuses people into thinking it is the City of St. Charles.
What is the City Doing about This?
We continue to monitor social media closely and report any fake pages posing as the City to Facebook. We appreciate the messages and reports we have received from other social media users alerting us to unusual posts. It has helped us manage the situation. Your continued assistance in helping us stop this spread of misinformation is greatly appreciated.
If you have any questions, please contact Lisa Garhan, Communications Division Manager at lgarhan@stcharlesil.gov or 630.443.3744 if you have any questions. Thank you.
