Almost half of all comments on MPs' social media flagged as abusive

Almost 5,000 threats and violent comments have been flagged on the social media accounts of 22 Labor politicians in just three months, as MPs turn to technology to combat online abuse.

New data from an AI tool being trialled by some senators and MPs has exposed the scale of hostility faced by elected representatives, with about half of the more than 460,000 comments analysed between July and October classified as abusive. 

About 190,000 of the screened comments were personal attacks, with gender-based abuse, racism and transphobia the categories most commonly identified by an AI-powered plug-in, called Areto.

There were 2,497 threats and 2,487 comments using violent language, with examples including "someone shoot this dopey b***h" and "you need to be hung for treason".

In one post an MP was called a "brain dead b***h," while in another comment a person said they "prefer assassinations".

Labor MPs using Areto told the ABC the tool protected both staff and community members, with abusive content clearly differentiated from genuine political criticism.

The safety of politicians has become a focus in the wake of the attack on Indi MP Helen Haines, for which the motive remains unknown.  

Senior public servants have also issued a warning about how social media clips of various parliamentary committee hearings were fuelling abuse towards bureaucrats.

Abuse has ‘chilling effect’ on community  

A few female Labor members began experimenting with Areto, which uses AI to identify and hide abusive and threatening comments, earlier this year before a trial was then extended to others in caucus.

Analysis of the results for 22 parliamentarians using the tool in the past three months found high-profile accounts typically received more attacks, with one MP recording 57,522 abusive comments alone.

Facebook carried about 94 per cent of all comments, of which 51 per cent were abusive, compared with 42 per cent of the small number of comments on Instagram, and 21 per cent of the comments on TikTok.

Finance and Women's Minister Katy Gallagher, who has started using Areto, said the volume of abuse online was "extraordinary".

"It is having a chilling effect on genuine community engagement," she said.

Senator Gallagher said the automated AI-tool was not filtering critical comments about the government or policy but was giving her staff and others "respite" from abusive content.

"It's not a perfect solution, and I don't think anyone expects it to be, but the platforms themselves are not dealing with this," she said.

Minister told ‘you’re next’ after Haines attack

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil said the behaviour of the social media platforms was "pitiful", accusing them of prioritising profits over safety. 

"These platforms are profiting off people treating each other with disrespect, anger, aggression and abuse, then they play dumb at the devastating social effects that are happening across the country," she said.

Ms O'Neil said the fact Areto existed was a "tragedy," but it was essential in helping manage the mental health of her team.

Ms O’Neil said the majority of public interactions she has as an MP are respectful, but she sensed the "online environment is seeping into the way people behave in real life".

"Politicians just happen to be in the public conversation right now, but it doesn't matter if you're an AFL footballer or a nurse working in a hospital, or a retail worker … anyone who interfaces with the public is feeling this declining respect."

Ms O’Neil said the abuse directed at politicians went beyond the "democratic process" of "people being upset with government and wanting to convey that".

"I don't see a straight line between that and 'You're next s**t' being written on my social media wall two days after Helen Haines [was attacked]."

MP's children the target of racist abuse

Bonner MP Kara Cook has been trialling Areto for the past six months and said as someone who does most of her own social media, she has noticed a vast improvement.

"For me, having a safe space for people locally to be able to genuinely express their views has been positive because I want to hear those," she said.

Areto has hidden 15,244 comments, mostly on Ms Cook’s Facebook page, which were identified as "abusive" with racism, gender microaggression and transphobia the most common categories of attack.

Ms Cook, who has three First Nation's children, said posts about her family often attracted "overwhelmingly racist comments".

"I've never hidden who I am as a person from my community … and I don't want that to change, but I also want to protect my family from that abuse," she said.

The first-term MP, who was a domestic violence lawyer and has previously served as a local councillor, said the day after she was elected to federal parliament, her home address and pictures of her house were published online.

"From that moment it was very clear to me that I'd entered a very different environment to any other workplace I'd ever been in," she said.

Ms Cook also said the tech companies had an "obligation" to stop threatening and racist abuse appearing on their platforms.

She said the attack on Ms Haines needed to be a "pivotal moment" where Australia changed its approach to the safety of everyone — particularly women.

Public service hits out at 'ridicule' and 'vile abuse' of officials

At a Senate Estimates hearing on Monday, top public servant Steven Kennedy said officials were also subject to increasing abuse online, and that parliamentarians were partly to blame for sharing "misleading" clips.

Those concerns were first aired in September when a senior defence official told a committee she did not want her answers clipped up for social media.

That request was rejected, with opposition and crossbench parliamentarians outraged by the idea.

But Mr Kennedy, who heads the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, said while he did not propose censoring footage, the "health and safety" of officials was a concern.

"Conduct that demeans, intimidates, humiliates or personally targets witnesses is inconsistent with the behaviour code for parliamentarians," he said.

"Evidence has been edited [for social media] in ways that invite ridicule, hostility or abuse directed at individual public servants … Unfortunately, some public servants have been the subjects of vile abuse."

Mr Kennedy urged parliamentarians to moderate comments on their social media posts and to delete abuse directed at officials.