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Man holds press conference after losing 100 Facebook friends over pro-Trump views

Make friendship great again.

 

Josh Katzowitz

Tech

Posted on Nov 21, 2016   Updated on May 25, 2021, 1:26 pm CDT

Whether you were reading fake news or endorsing the candidate of your choice, there’s little doubt Facebook played a large role in the 2016 election and in how you related to your Facebook friends because of it.

Hell, you might have unfriended a few (or a dozen) Facebook buddies because of their stances or because of the way they presented those issues. And if you did, chances are decent you might have been Facebook friends with this poor dude who lost so many Facebook acquaintances because of his pro-Donald Trump views that he called a press conference to talk about it.

Meet Gary Pollakusky, a Long Island resident who said he lost more than 100 Facebook friends, including the best man from his wedding, after he posted this photo taken from Trump’s New York City victory party on Election Day.

[Placeholder for https://www.facebook.com/garypollakusky/posts/10154697094808267 embed.]

A day or two after the election, he said he noticed a new phenomenon on his page.

“I started to look at my news feed again to see the pictures of puppies and babies that I was hoping people were posting again and one of those folks that I was looking for in my feed was my best man and I didn’t see anything,” Pollakusky told the New York Post. “I clicked his profile and realized he had deleted me and we weren’t friends anymore.”

Pollakusky—who happens to run a company that helps businesses manage their social media strategies—said his best man was a friend from college, and he said he helped his buddy get his first job out of school.

In Pollakusky’s mind, the reaction of his friends—and what he termed their “mean comments” to him and his wife—constituted cyberbullying, which is why he called a press conference to complain.

https://twitter.com/hunterw/status/799261276987858945

Either way, Pollakusky said he’d like to reconnect with his best man.

“The jury is out with my friend, I’m not sure if he’ll reconnect with me or my wife at this point,” said Pollakusky, who didn’t immediately respond to a Daily Dot request for comment. “But the hope is there.”

H/T CBS New York

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*First Published: Nov 21, 2016, 12:58 pm CST