Why Fiona Patten has quit social media

Fiona Patten says she’s taking a break from social media.

And it might be permanent.

The Reason Party leader told Tom Elliott it’s due to increasing abuse directed at her and her staff online.

“I’m happy to have vibrant and fulsome conversations but right at the moment it’s just vile, and abusive, and obscene,” she said.

Ms Patten said she wants “to be able to have people responding and engaging” on social media, but the level of abuse her staff are dealing with means that’s not currently possible.

“I just thought this is not good for me and it’s certainly not good for my staff. I mean I had staff up to all hours just shovelling trolls off our Facebook page,” she said.

“They weren’t engaging with a conversation, they were just trying to be as … abusive as possible.”

Press PLAY below to hear Fiona Patten explain why she’s taking a social media break (and might make it permanent)