Maitland City Council is believed to be the first council in the state to require councillors to declare their involvement in websites and social media pages providing community news.
It follows the emergence of numerous politically orientated online community news sources across Maitland in recent months.
"It is not always clear who is an administrator of these pages, which can and have been used to whip up hatred and slurs directed to other councillors with comments to this effect often left to snowball while views critical to the administrator are deleted," a briefing paper provided to councillors said.
"Another phenomenon appears to be new "news" websites where "articles" on these sites have almost word-for-word recounted councillors' views without any form of investigation into whether what was said was factual or not."
Liberal councillor Ben Mitchell, who brought the motion to Tuesday's meeting, said the sites had become increasingly problematic and toxic.
"A lot of people don't realise they are reading fake news," he said.
"I'm not trying to control what people say, I just want them to be accountable."
Independent deputy mayor Philip Penfold voted for the motion despite raising concerns about it during the council debate.
He declined to comment to the Newcastle Herald on Wednesday.
In a Facebook post he acknowledged that he assisted with a "few group pages in Maitland".
"The community appreciate being informed and that's what I plan to continue to do," he said.
Labor mayor Loretta Baker, who has been targeted in numerous posts, said she hoped the requirement for disclosure would improve accountability regarding the dissemination of information in the community.
"I was amazed at how many people thought they were reading a real newspaper website," she said.
Cr Baker praised Cr Mitchell for taking a stand on the issue.
"It was gutsy and ethical. He obviously cares about the people he represents, which is what councillors should do," she said.
Regional Cities NSW chairman Col Murrary recently wrote to Local Government Minister Shelley Hancock to highlight the need to a update its model code of conduct requirement to include social media.
A Office of Local Government spokesman said a template for best practice policy on social media use for councils was being developed.
"If adopted by a council, the policy will be enforceable under the council's code of conduct," the spokesman said.
"Councils are permitted to include additional provisions in their adopted codes of conduct to those in the Model Code of Conduct for Local Councils in NSW, including in relation to social media use."
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