Saga is facing an online backlash after it scrapped a social network site set up for the over-50s, amid claims it had become a platform for racist, homophobic and anti-semitic comments.
Saga Zone was launched in 2007 as a rival to Facebook, but the company claims it is pulling the plug at the end of this month because exchanges between “just a few hundred regular users” were damaging the Saga brand.
Spokesman Paul Green explained: “The majority are a good group of people but a minority caused concern with offensive racist or homophobic comments.
“An online free-for-all might be alright for other social networks such as Twitter but expectations are different when there is the Saga logo in the top right-hand corner.”
But some users have taken to the Internet to complain about the decision.
One said: “Efficient and effective moderation could have addressed any concerns they had – and that is an expense they would rather not have to meet. Their decision to focus on ‘brand reputation’ as a reason and thus justify the summary closure which has caused real distress to a number of members is, in my view, scurrilous and potentially could do more to damage their brand reputation than a few posts which were qualified by a corporate disclaimer anyway.
“There was the facility, sometimes and inconsistently used, to ban posters who possibly contravened the unclear laws we have regarding views expressed on the internet – so their brand reputation need not have been ‘judged’ to have been adversely affected.”
Another posted: “I think they may have done inestimable damage to the reputation of their brand by the clumsy and callous way they have managed the closure of the site. I would have had far more respect for them as an organisation had they been transparent about their reasons and given their loyal membership, some of whom made public their reliance on Saga Zone as a counter to housebound isolation, and as a support in times of personal hardship and bereavement, fair warning and time.”