Keeping connected to vital information in the Town of Princeton just got a lot harder.

On the heels of the Meta news ban, which prevents news organizations from posting links to stories on Facebook, as of Friday, Sept. 1 the municipality is unable to post links from its website to the area鈥檚 many community Facebook groups.

The town has routinely used community groups to keep residents up-to-date on municipal matters.

鈥淚t鈥檚 to get information out, so sometimes it鈥檚 bylaw information, sometimes it鈥檚 updates that are pertinent to things that are going on in the community, evacuation alerts and those sort of things, even meeting notices,鈥� said Mayor Spencer Coyne.

All municipal posts on at least six community groups have been deleted, going back four years.

The reason given is the posts 鈥済o against community standards for cybersecurity.鈥�

Using the community pages is a key part of the town鈥檚 communication strategy, he added.

鈥淚t just threw us back 20 years, maybe even further.鈥�

Council and staff are now discussing how to move forward.

鈥淲e are super frustrated by this and we are exploring all options.鈥�

It is unknown whether the situation is linked to the Meta news ban.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 know, but it鈥檚 suspicious timing,鈥� said Coyne. 鈥淭hat has been one of my concerns from day one, that municipalities would get trapped or caught up in all this. It鈥檚 suspicious anyways.鈥�

Coyne has submitted many requests to FB for reviews of the deleted posts, and they have been denied.

The town is still able to post links from its website to its own three official Facebook pages; Town of Princeton, Town of Princeton Emergency Management and Town of Princeton Recreation.

Coyne is urging all residents to follow these pages and to also stay connected through local media.

鈥淲e just want to get the information out there.鈥�

Do you have something to add to this story, or something else we should report on? Email:andrea.demeer@similkameenspotlight.com