The Village of Mount Prospect announced Wednesday, December 17, 2025, a change to its social media practices taking effect immediately. According to the Village of Mount Prospect, the comments on the Village’s official social media platforms will be disabled as part of an effort to ensure accurate information sharing, maintain respectful discourse, and manage public resources responsibly.
The announcements regarding comment disabling first appeared Friday morning, December 26, 2025 on the Village of Mount Prospect Facebook page, the Mount Prospect Police Department Facebook page, and the Mount Prospect Fire Department page. Beneath each Facebook post on the Village of Mount Prospect official Facebook page since December 15, 2025, a statement in the comments section reads, “Village of Mount Prospect limited who can comment on this post.”
The police post regarding disabling comments on Friday, December 26, 2025 was the first post with comments disabled on the official Mount Prospect Police Department Facebook page, which also included a statement in the comments section that reads, “Village of Mount Prospect limited who can comment on this post.”
Beneath each Facebook post on the Mount Prospect Fire Department official Facebook page since December 18, 2025, a statement in the comments section reads, “Village of Mount Prospect limited who can comment on this post.”
According to the Village of Mount Prospect, social media accounts are intended to serve (for the village) as informational tools, providing timely updates on Village services, public safety notices, meeting information, events, and other community news. Over time, the Village has seen an increase of spam, misinformation, and comments that could be viewed as harmful content incongruent with supporting an inclusive community. Disabling comments is a departure from the Village’s Communication Plan created in 2019 that encouraged participation through social media; however, negative interactions have increased on social media platforms since the plan was adopted. Disabling comments allows staff to focus on delivering reliable information to residents on an online platform where all can feel safe.
The Village emphasizes that this change does not limit public input or engagement. Residents are encouraged to share questions, concerns, and feedback through established channels, including direct messages and emails to elected officials or staff, phone calls, and speaking at public meetings, where comments are part of the public record and can be addressed appropriately.
The Village of Mount Prospect remains committed to transparency, open communication, and meaningful civic engagement and appreciates residents’ understanding as it continues to refine how it communicates with the community and adapt to changing trends. For more information or to contact the Village, residents may call 847-392-6000 or email [email protected].
Considering the worldwide situation on Facebook, many users feel Facebook comments have declined in quality due to increased spam, scams, low-effort or thoughtless comments, hateful or racist comments, comments with misinformation, and personal attacks of Facebook pages and other commenters. Also, aggressive moderation can lead to hiding comments that might not deserve a hidden status. This can occur due to moderation settings applied by page admins or group admins, and by Facebook’s AI automatic filtering or eventual censorships.
Admins can battle bots and bad actors by implementing stricter rules, keyword filters, and account age requirements, etc. While moderation aims to improve quality, good or quality comments can be hidden or prohibited, creating frustration.
To some, Facebook is judged by users to involve a declining signal-to-noise ratio, which makes it more difficult to find useful or helpful information. To others Facebook users, the chaos is entertaining. In one aspect, the quality of comments can be revealing about specific people and their beliefs, and in another aspect might reveal the state of society — whether society is declining or whether Facebook promotes social decline. One major concern is whether the agitated and aggressive demeanor that develops behind the keyboard online, extends to the real world on roadways and in stores, etc.
Overall, the satisfaction of users on Facebook is down, and the general agitation of users is up.
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