Threats made online deemed ‘opinion’
One of the organisers of Wellington’s Black Lives Matter protest says he’s disappointed Facebook has done more to address online threats than the authorities.
Guled Mire, a community advocate, received threatening Facebook messages after the march to Parliament on June 14.
Across the country, thousands of New Zealanders gathered to show solidarity with the movement, which has come to life again in the United States following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man in police custody.
Online hate is nothing new to Mire, who’s spoken out about racism in New Zealand following last year’s massacre at two Christchurch mosques, and campaigned for the Government to scrap a ‘family link’ refugee policy dubbed discriminatory. ‘‘I’ve noticed a real increase in hate and abuse online since I’ve put myself in the public arena, since March 15, [2019],’’ Mire says. ‘‘Some of it’s just trolling but there are messages that are really threatening in nature. That’s where my concern lies. There’s not enough being done to keep us safe.’’
Some messages, sent from an account based in Auckland, with a profile photo of a young, tattooed man, told Mire to expect ‘‘trouble’’ if further protests went ahead. He suggested Mire ‘‘lay low, or else. We’re watching you very close.’’
Mire reported the messages to police, who told him the comments were ‘‘distasteful and would cause alarm’’ but didn’t meet the threshold to be a criminal offence.
Mire says when he insisted he felt unsafe, an officer told him the messages appeared to be someone expressing their opinion.
There was no identifiable risk to Mire’s safety, the officer said.
Police were unable to cross
reference the Facebook identity with a particular person, so couldn’t take further action.
Mire also went to Netsafe, which flagged the messages with Facebook, which removed the account for violating its community standards.
Mire said he was surprised Facebook agreed the messages were harmful while the police considered them ‘‘an opinion’’. He was disappointed police didn’t attempt to at least identify the sender. ‘‘For me, the thing that’s more hurtful is not so much the messages of hate, but the dismissive response from authorities. And they wonder why we’re protesting, why we’re on the streets calling for change.
‘‘When you have people telling you to watch your back, I’m worried about not just my safety but also others involved in antiracism kaupapa. It’s sad to think post-Christchurch, this is the world we live in.’’
If anything, Mire says, despite a recent focus on online hate, ‘‘things have got worse’’. ‘‘It’s heartbreaking, especially after seeing 51 members of my community slaughtered.’’
The Wellington police area commander, Inspector Dion Bennett, said in a statement: ‘‘Police review all matters based on the facts presented. On this occasion police have determined that no offence has been committed, therefore the grounds to seek personal details about the user from the social media site is not justified.’’
The online safety organisation Netsafe says it has seen a 238 per cent increase in online hate speech reports this year, compared to the last six months of 2019. Chief executive Martin Cocker says there has been ‘‘a lot of race-based abuse’’ directed towards Chinese people and, more recently, those involved in the Black Lives Matter movement.