When the Otago Daily Times reported on a Confederate battle flag being flown at a North Otago garage, the social media battle lines were drawn quickly.
Dunedin woman Lisa Yorke, who asked for the Confederate battle flag to come down from display at a Maheno petrol station operated by Garrie Ford, came in for a barrage of insults and abuse.
All this played out on a community Facebook page, Oamaru Today.
An Oamaru man, who the ODT has chosen not to name in print, wrote that Ms Yorke was a "silly b...".
When contacted by the Otago Daily Times, the man said he did not want to comment about why he wrote that.
His comment was still being publicly displayed on the page yesterday.
The page yesterday carried similarly abusive comments from other Facebook accounts.
Another Oamaru man, who the ODT has also chosen not to name, wrote: "burn the building down" on the same comment thread on the flag story, and his statement stayed up for at least five days after being posted on February 11.
He told the ODT he made the remark to "create a stir".
"I see the Confederate flag as a racial statement against coloured people, and being born and bred in Oamaru and a Maori I know just how racist this town can be. I live in Australia at the moment and racism is even worse here. There’s no place for it in this day and age."
Ms Yorke had braced herself for the abuse.
"I knew there would be a backlash," she told the ODT.
Oamaru Today administrator Allan Dick said he tried to post anything and everything he thought was of interest to Oamaru as long as it was not personally offensive to someone.
He said many people who used social media did not understand rights of "free speech" needed to be within social and legal parameters.
"I was surprised at the response to the Confederate Flag issue. I know in the USA there has been a fresh look at what the southern flag stood for in the American Civil War and some politically sensitive people have taken the stand it should be banned for its racial insensitivity, but I wasn’t aware that view had so many adherents in New Zealand.
"While I was surprised at how many people reacted to the story, I was not surprised at the impatience shown by the many who see nothing wrong with the flag."
He said he found aggression levels much higher on social media than during his years as a radio talkback host.
"It definitely has given a minority of angry, antisocial and abusive people a platform from which to vent and abuse.
"I delete comments if they are racially insensitive, they might be offensive to a particular identified person, libellous, obscene, although language is a movable feast these days."
Asked why derogatory comments made about Ms Yorke were still on his page, Mr Dick said he had not seen the comments.
"If Ms Yorke saw them and was offended, an email or a PM (personal message) to get my attention would have seen them deleted. I cannot monitor 24 hours a day, seven days a week, going back over every post. It would be a non-stop job."
Behaving badlyOther local Facebook administrators approached by the Otago Daily Times all agreed they had to monitor public comments.
When it came to what was posted on The Upper Waitaki Community Page, administrator Sarah Rowland said she chose whatever she thought was relevant.
"I leave all comments as is, unless abusive, of which there have been very few. I think Facebook is a vehicle for information that can be compared to owning a car — it can be a handy conveyance or a dangerous weapon depending on who’s driving it."
A representative of Waitaki Online said the page tried to stick to local content, but it all came down to who had time to post.
"We don’t post items we think are inflammatory or irrelevant and we delete and sometimes ban people who don’t follow the same code of conduct you would expect at a school. So no swearing, no inciting to ‘bash’ anyone, no racist comments."
Waitaki District Council community safety and development facilitator Helen Algar QSM said social media could be difficult to traverse.
"It is important from a community and individual perspective for us all to carefully consider any online communications before we commit things in writing."
The Otago Daily Times reported in 2010 Mrs Algar believed bullying text messages were a significant factor in the death of her 16-year-old son Daniel Gillies, who had a genetic condition.
Daniel’s body was found at the bottom of a cliff near the blue penguin colony after he failed to turn up for his morning paper run.
"My family has had personal experience of the devastation that can be caused through social media. Rule of thumb should always be: ‘If you can’t say it in person, don’t write it’," Mrs Algar said.
Associate Prof Jackie Hunter. of the University of Otago’s department of psychology, said the anonymity the internet offered meant people felt able to express certain thoughts that face-to-face interaction stopped.
"People can be quite nasty. Basically, people are anonymous. There’s no consequences for what they do."
The derogatory language targeted at Ms Yorke was "incredibly sexist", Prof Hunter said.
"People feel they can get away with it when there’s no-one around, but they’re just expressing gender prejudice."
How does the law work?
Associate Prof Colin Gavaghan, of the University of Otago’s Faculty of Law, said the Harmful Digital Communications Act worked alongside freedom of speech but there were still a few issues as to how a court case could play out.
The Act does three things: it creates a new criminal offence of "causing harm by means of communication device"; it sets up an approved agency to help people on the internet; and it gives new powers to the court.
The offence is punishable by up to two years’ imprisonment. However, the law was not black and white, Prof Gavaghan said, so someone being treated badly on the internet did not mean the law had been broken. Netsafe chief executive Martin Cocker said online hosts had responsibilities for content that were covered by laws such as defamation.
Netsafe could not force online content hosts to take action, but the organisation informed both parties about the potential outcome if the case was taken to court.
