It was more that the environment (Facebook, in this case) has allowed toxic situations where less scrupulous patrons were taking advantage of the social network to spread falsehoods for an attempt at personal gain by viral traction. Basically tell the lie fast and hard enough that the targeted party was helpless to defend themselves.

Thankfully it didn't play out that way. The company has a decent amount of respect in this town, and the situation was well documented in advance.