‘Nasty’ posts bug police Facebook pages

People wanted by police are finding themselves the target of online ‘‘mob mentality’’ trolls.

Racist, sexist and fat-shaming comments on police Facebook pages across the country have sparked calls for better moderation. A social media expert says the posts have become like the ‘‘freak shows’’ of the 19th century.

Police Facebook pages have a combined following of more than 730,000 people and receive hundreds of comments each day.

Officers post mugshots, security camera grabs and photos in a bid to find suspects, missing people and fugitives. Some followers were helpful. Others dished out abuse.

One commenter described a man as looking ‘‘straight from the planet of the apes movie’’. Another asked if a man fell ‘‘straight outta Star Trek’’. Comments under women’s photos included remarks about their size and likely eating habits. Others posts said ‘‘she needs a muzzle’’, ‘‘Jabba the hutt in the flesh’’ and ‘‘I bet she hasn’t failed to appear at KFC’’.

It is not just suspected criminals on the receiving end. A recent post of an Auckland Chinese constable doing a short video in Mandarin resulted in racist comments but police ‘‘intervened quickly’’ to hide them.

A spokesperson said all police Facebook pages had a moderation filter that automatically hid comments containing ‘‘profanities and inappropriate language’’.

The public affairs team at national headquarters worked with each police district to moderate comments and ‘‘hide anything racist, sexist or discriminatory’’.

‘‘We do look out for negative comments and have on occasion requested that people be respectful in their comments. However, given the large number of comments the various police Facebook pages receive each day ... it is not always possible to monitor and moderate every post.’’

Followers can ‘‘self-moderate and address disrespectful comments themselves’’.

This appeared to be the case on the Canterbury police Facebook page. ‘‘How the hell do police allow comments on this that are public shaming?’’ a commenter wrote.

To which someone responded: ‘‘Get off with your sensibility, this is our entertainment.’’

Social media expert and Canterbury University associate professor Ekant Veer said Facebook was an effective way for police to find people but more comment control was needed.

‘‘Disgusting, horrible and nasty’’ comments found on the page were ‘‘like a new form of the freak shows that happened in villages [in the past]’’.

This type of behaviour had happened for centuries but was more visible with social media, he said. A ‘‘mob mentality’’ appeared when social media users saw other people posting nasty comments, making them think it was acceptable behaviour. ‘‘The police are in a hard place. Facebook gives them an amazing reach but you can’t block comments [there].’’

The only way to ‘‘police’’ the page was to have someone watching it 24 hours a day, which would be a ‘‘massive drain on resources’’. Police could block certain commenters but this would limit their reach, he said.

New Zealand bloggers Christina Baird and Jenn Hadfield O’connell launched the #keepitkindonline campaign earlier this month to raise awareness about online abuse.

Baird said personal attacks and abusive comments were becoming more common, especially on Facebook. ‘‘It’s almost become accepted as a way of interacting.’’

Moderating Facebook comments and blogs could be ‘‘overwhelming’’ and extremely difficult, she said. ‘‘We want to mobilise commenters to help moderate nasty comments.’’

Anti-online bullying organisation Netsafe said it was police’s responsibility ‘‘to develop and follow’’ social media processes.

Netsafe has defined online bullying as using technology ‘‘to transfer, send, post, publish or disseminate content with the intention to harm a person or a group’’.