WALLA WALLA — College Place officials believe a barrage of racial slurs, profanity and antisemitic language spouted by call-in speakers during a City Council meeting in October was the work of AI-generated bots.
Other commenters presumed to be AI-generated have disrupted meetings in the region and across the country.
College Place Mayor Norma Hernández said she is looking at ways to prevent similar attacks in the future, including considering ending virtual commenting if it’s not a state requirement.
After hearing of the incident in College Place, the Walla Walla City Council approved a new policy allowing the mayor or presiding officer to cut off offensive or irrelevant comments.
Hearing interrupted
The disruption began about halfway through the Tuesday, Oct. 24, meeting during a public hearing about College Place’s property tax revenues for 2024.
Hernández opened the public hearing and took a question from someone in person before allowing comments from virtual attendees, according to the meeting recording.
A virtual speaker stated a name and address. Their comment about property taxes quickly devolved into antisemitic language.
Hernández interrupted the speaker, saying the comments were inappropriate and likely the result of an AI bot, something she said had occurred at other meetings in the region.
As the city staff attempted to cut the speaker off, the speaker repeatedly unmuted their microphone, shouting antisemitic comments and profanity before the link was disconnected.
A second speaker also gave a name and address and started commenting about property taxes before saying that the previous comments were not from AI bots but, “actual, real Nazis.”
As Hernández asked the clerk to cut the speaker off, the speaker directed profanity at her and then repeatedly unmuted, shouting sexist and racial slurs, including the n-word.
AI-generated
Hernández said in an interview on Friday, Nov. 11, that the similarities to other interruptions reported in public meetings around the country, as well as the invalid names and addresses shared, point to the speakers being AI-generated bots.
While working to disconnect the callers, city clerk Sherri St. Clair looked up the addresses the callers had used and found that the first was not a valid College Place address. The second speaker did share a local address but the speaker’s name did not match the name of the person registered at the address.
Hernández declined to give a third caller in the queue a chance to speak until their name and address could be verified.
“The call disconnected at that point,” Hernández said later in an email.
Hernández also said the speed at which the speakers were unmuting the microphones made it seem like it was automatic or quick technology, not individuals.
The incident had other similarities to those reported around the country.
The speakers at the College Place meeting said, “Hello, can you hear me?” as they first unmuted and spoke on issues referenced earlier in the meeting before their comments escalated. That also happened at an October meeting in Beaverton, Oregon, according to a report by KOIN 6 News in Portland.
Hernández said she doesn’t want to give a platform to any type of hate or harmful speech, be it human or technology driven.
“I want people to feel assured that this is not the feeling of College Place,” she said. “These types of racial (attacks) and attacks on our Jewish community are not coming from College Place. I want people to rest assured and to feel safe that College Place is a good place for them to come and live and do business.”
She also said she doesn’t believe the language was directed at her personally.
“I don’t think it was me they were calling names,” she said. “They were just getting as many of the words out there as they could.”
Policy changes
After learning of the disruptions at the College Place meeting, Walla Walla City Council members present at the Wednesday, Oct. 25, meeting unanimously approved a new policy to cut off such commenters.
Walla Walla Mayor Tom Scribner said city clerk Lisa Neissl heard about the incident in College Place and proposed language that could be shared at the start of each public comment period.
Scribner said the policy would be in place to address improper, irrelevant, offensive and aggressive comments made in person or virtually.
“Unfortunately, College Place, their council met last evening and they had such a situation that deteriorated and vulgarities were offered, as I understand. It was unpleasant,” he said. “We would like our city council to avoid that type of behavior going forward.”
The approved policy, which will be read at each meeting ahead of public comment, said, “persons making irrelevant, personal, impertinent, overly redundant or slanderous remarks may be barred by the presiding officer from (making) further comment before the council during the meeting.”
Hernández said she appreciates Walla Walla’s new policy but cutting off the caller didn’t exactly work for College Place.
“However they have this organized, we just could not cut them off as much as we tried,” she said.
She said she wants to prevent the speakers from hijacking the meeting in the first place and would consider eliminating virtual commenting if it’s not a state requirement.
“While I understand the state’s reason for wanting us to allow remote access to citizens, I do not believe that is reasonable in today’s environment,” she said. “It allows for too much anonymity and abuse.”
She said there are other ways for people to comment — in person, email, phone, mail — that don’t allow the anonymity offered by Zoom.
“It was so ugly,” she said of the meeting.
The state’s open public meeting laws outline meeting and public comment requirements for city councils and other public agencies.
Officials must offer public comment at or before every meeting where final action is taken.
The language of the law does not limit the agency’s authority to deal with interruptions or limit the time or method of public comment, the statute said.
Hernández said her staff is reaching out for guidance from state agencies, including the Office of the Attorney General and the Municipal Research and Services Center, before the city makes any changes.
“In the meantime, we’re just going to have to continue opening it because we do not want to violate any Washington state laws and the rights of the people to comment,” Hernández said. “What really makes me nervous with these types of comments, people will believe that it’s real people in College Place that are feeling that way.”
