A recent post from the Nextdoor account of Mercer Island City Council member Wendy Weiker asking for citizen input was apparently an April Fool’s Day joke.
Entitled “Wendy Weiker is up for more ND abuse,” the post was made to the “Mid Mercer Island” section of Nextdoor.com on Monday, April 1st. The post, possibly the work of an unknown hacker, has since been deleted.
“While [the post] is convincing to the untrained eye, as soon as I read it, I knew it was fake,” said Island resident and social media expert May K. Moore-Noyes. “Not only its title and date, but the apparent sincerity of its message. What elected official would seriously solicit feedback from the Mercer Island users of Nextdoor?”
A Nextdoor employee confirmed that the post came from Weiker’s authenticated account but refused to comment on whether the account has been hacked, citing company policy created in response to fake Twitter hacking allegations made in 2011 by then-Congressman Anthony Weiner. [Editor’s note: Despite the similarity of their last names, Wendy Weiker is not believed to be related to Anthony Weiner.]
Friends and associates of Weiker were relieved to learn that the post was fake. “It was the first credible post about the city council I’d read on Nextdoor in months,” said one friend, “But I am happier to hear it was an April Fool’s joke. I was afraid it was a cry for help.”