Peninsula 360 Press
Dated September 20, 2020, Peninsula360Press (P360P) published an opinion column titled "Census Beat in Redwood City". https://peninsula360press.com/opinion/opinion-golpe-al-censo-en-redwood-city/
This column was based on an email complaint from a Nextdoor user who requested anonymity to avoid retaliation. The email included a screenshot where Redwood City Councilwoman Giselle Hale had posted on Nextdoor about the importance of being counted and the benefits of the census for the city, as well as ways to still participate. About this event, P360P published the story "Latinas go for one last push to promote 2020 census in Redwood City" dated September 15, 2020, available at: https://peninsula360press.com/peninsula/ultimo-intento-para-prover-el-censo-2020-en-redwood-city/
As the screenshot shows, 19 people voted for and against removing the post. One of the people who voted was Johanna Rasmussen wife of Chris Rasmussen who is running in District 7 for City Council. However, the post was not removed because it did not violate the social network's rules.
On September 29 Rasmussen posted on his Twitter account at 10:40pm in reference to the P360P article: "What are you talking about? My first job was with the census?"; to which, P360P responded "We're talking about this - hand pointing down emoticon?" with the above screenshot. She replied "I did not denounce Councilwoman Hale. As you can see here, 19 different Nextdoor leaders voted on this post. Leaders do not have the ability to delete posts, only Nextdoor staff can do that?
On the morning of September 30, 2020 Rasmussen contacted P360P production to ask for a right of reply regarding what was published in the initial story. According to Rasmussen, "Giselle Hale's post was reported solely due to self-promotion by people in the community that I don't know.
According to Rasmussen, on September 21, 2020, he attempted to contact Giselle Hale to let her know: "I'm a leader at Nextdoor and wanted to let you know that the RGB photos in your post were flagged and reported as "self-promotional spam" on Nextdoor. From what I can see, it is most likely the last photo of you where you are alone that is in question. Just wanted to give you a heads up, in case you want to edit the post. Johanna.?
Rasmussen says that after getting no response he sent her the following message on Sept. 26, 2020: "I wanted to let you know that a community member reported another one of your posts. It's about the Census.
Today, September 30, 2020, Rasmussen posted on Twitter and sent our newsroom the screenshot of these messages.
Johanna alleges that she has been targeted and discriminated against because, although she does not speak Spanish, she is Latina. P360P made it clear to her that this is a media outlet created to give voice to the ethnic diversity of the Peninsula, including Latinas and Latinos, and that those of us who work here identify as such. Our function as a media outlet is to report on what is happening in our community including social-digital networks.
Rasmussen concluded the call by asking that it be added to this note that she worked "for the Census by mapping the San Mateo County coast to make sure we counted all our migrant farm workers and also held neighborhood association meetings about the census?
With respect to the allegations of racial discrimination, P360P has the following views:
Racism against the Latino community is a systematic phenomenon in this country. That's precisely why P360P was struck by the fact that a post about the efforts of 12 Latina women to promote the census was attempted to be deleted by some members of the social network Netxdoor.
