By Will Young

When a Twitter user began reporting Aribnb listings to the City of Vancouver with their addresses, the social media staff behind @CityOfVancouver initially accepted the complaints.

But then the City staff suddenly decided to demand personal information from “@Vistro11”.

Hi, please DM your full contact information including your full name, address, and phone no. in order to proceed further. Thx ^SS

— City of Vancouver (@CityofVancouver) 29 October 2017

City of Vancouver official Kira Hutchinson told reporters that staff don’t monitor complaints on Twitter and asked complainants to call 3-1-1.

City’s decision created an immediate backlash after @VISTRO11 complained that the City was accepting complaints over Twitter from others but not them.

You have been accepting complaints from other twitter users. Why are you making an exception here? Are you familiar with s15 of the Charter?

— VISTRO (@VISTRO11) 30 October 2017

Some Vancouverites lambasted the City for the abrupt policy change.

Not safe for people to use their real name given power RE industry has at city hall. Shame on you for not taking anonymous complaints. pic.twitter.com/YCtH0S3qgl

— Chilco (@ChilcoComox) 30 October 2017

Others offered to make complaints on their new hero’s behalf.

If the city requires a name and address to file, tweet to us know and many will offer to submit submit on your behalf.

— Funky L. Paw (@FunkyPaw) 30 October 2017

It didn’t take long for the City of Vancouver to bow down to public pressure and resume accepting @VISTRO11 complaints.

Hi, thanks for your report. It's been submitted via case id# 10349194. ^IF

— City of Vancouver (@CityofVancouver) 30 October 2017

@VISTRO11 claims that they were motivated to start their activity after listening to speakers the Vancouver City Council public hearing on short term rentals^[1]http://council.vancouver.ca/20171024/documents/phea1-by-law-amendlicenseby-law.pdf.

“There were two kinds of speakers at the public hearing,” @VISTRO11 said. “The ‘me me me’ over-leveraged Airbnb homeowners, and those who seemed to genuinely concerned about Airbnb evictions and passionately cared about making Vancouver a place for families and individuals who lived and work here.”

“Almost all the speakers in the latter group complained about how the City of Vancouver was doing little or nothing to enforce the existing bylaws,” the vigilante added. “I want to help the City, and those who genuinely and passionately care about the city by identifying and reporting bylaw breakers.”

Around a 100 people spoke on the proposed by-law, under which short term rental operators would be required to obtain a licence before marketing their units, and only offer such accommodations in their principle residence.

The Vancouver City Council will debate the motion again in November.