Posted at: 09/19/2012 9:47 PM
Updated at: 09/19/2012 10:16 PM
By: Dietrich Nissen

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Same-Sex Marriage Groups Argue Over New Campaign Tool

(ABC 6 News) -- It’s something many of us use on a daily basis and now online social networking is at the center of a debate surrounding Minnesota's Same-Sex Marriage amendment.

The group that supports the amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman spoke out Wednesday saying it's the victim of an online stalking tool. And who's responsible? It says the group on the amendments opposing side.

These days all kinds of groups are using social media to sway voters, but Minnesota For Marriage says its opponent is taking it too far.

"This is just simple harassment against people that support the marriage amendment," says Autumn Leva, a spokesperson for the group. She calls the kNOw tool a form of cyber stalking. The tool can be used with Facebook to identify your friends who may support the marriage amendment.

"It's not just identify voters who are with you or against you. It's targeting people who they already know are for our against you and targeting them for a specific conversation," says Leva.

"I think it's fair because I think people should be able to like put their opinions out there," says Mackenzie Olsen who uses social media daily. She says she sees this tool as a way to start conversations with voters on both sides.

"They're probably hearing like people that are saying vote yes, they're probably only taking in their opinion," says Olsen, who personally disagrees with the amendment.

Minnesotans United For All Families defends the tool saying it only points out people who are already your friends. The group’s spokesperson, Kate Brickman, compares it to an advanced phone bank.

"Each time they have a conversation with someone in their own life about why it's important to vote no, it makes that person 67% more likely to vote no just by the one conversation," says Brickman.

But as both sides continue to disagree, this tool may just be another sign, times are changing both technologically and socially.