Bear River gossip blogger pulls site amid controversy

The writer behind a gossip blog in Bear River, N.S., says she pulled down the controversial site this week because she realized its contents hurt people.

Zoe Onysko is the author of The Bear River Tides. It chronicles the personal lives of people who volunteer on the village's board of trade.

"I became a little concerned that maybe at some point in what I had written I had perhaps overstepped, so what I've decided to do is take the whole blog down and give it a really good house cleaning," Onysky said Monday.

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Onysky launched the blog six years after she said she was kicked off the board of trade. Those targeted by the blog have called on the federal government to intervene with cyberbullying legislation that would force the site to be taken down.

When Onysky first spoke to CBC, she defended her site and said everything on it was "completely true."

But now she said she plans to edit all content that could possibly defame people. The site has also been marked private, which means anyone who wants to view it needs a username and password.

"I put a lot of personal comment into the posts, and I think I'll take the personal comment out of the posts and write essays or editorials in separate posts regarding my feelings about the behaviour of people who behave that way," Onysko said.

Temporary reprieve

Those who were targeted by The Bear River Tides remain skeptical. 

"There's relief to see it gone, but on the other hand it's still up there — it's just out of the public domain," said Susan Friend.

"People can still read things on that blog, and I feel certain that those malicious lies and twisted truths are still going to be there. It's just that now a select number of people will be reading it."

In response to Onysko's decision to remove her blog from the public domain, a counter site called The Bear River Tides Truth has also been pulled. The writers behind that site have not made their identities known.

In an email statement to CBC, they said: "We put in our blog from the beginning that we would take down our blog if Zoe Onysko took down her blog. When she made hers password protected, we made ours the same. If Zoe puts her blog back up, we shall do the same."

Onysko said she expects to have her edited blog back up in February.