The Charity Commission has reshared a critical post on social media about Mermaids charity, which it says was in error.
It reshared a post on X, formerly known at Twitter, which read Mermaids is “responsible for so much harm” and is under investigation by the regulator. The re-post has since been deleted.
(Screenshot: Mermaids)
Mermaids, which is being investgated by the Commission, put out a statement around the social media activity, which said: “In response to an email from us, the Commission confirmed that this appears to have been accidental activity during monitoring.
“We recognise that accidents do happen, however vigilance is required to ensure that these are addressed as soon as possible.”
The statement adds: “As a public body, the Commission must appear to be scrupulously independent and unbiased across its work, including its activity on social media, and it is disappointing that it has taken approaches by outside parties for these accidents to be resolved.
“We welcome the reassurance that the Commission is exploring additional safeguards to prevent a recurrence, however, during a particularly difficult time for the trans community following the release of the Cass Review, we remain concerned at the potential impact of such mistakes on trans children and young people who, instead of being treated with compassion and respect, are seeing their experiences invalidated and questioned across the media and platforms such as X.
“We look forward to an apology from the Commission for the potential impacts of these mistakes, and additional assurance for those charities working in areas at the centre of highly politicised discussion that there will be no recurrence.”
A spokesperson for the regulator said: “During routine monitoring of social media, a post that mentioned the Commission was accidentally reposted. This was removed quickly, as soon as it was identified.”
The Commission is investigating Mermaids after opening a statutory inquiry into the trans youth charity at the end of 2022, following concerns about its governance and management.
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