Western Australia Police have reached out to Meta, the parent company of Facebook, seeking support to moderate comments on their social media pages after facing criticism for allowing racist and derogatory remarks.

Earlier this week, the Dunsborough Police Facebook page posted a photo of two young individuals requesting public information. The post attracted numerous derogatory and homophobic comments before being removed hours later.

In April, lawyers and Indigenous leaders accused WA Police of mishandling comment sections on their posts after a series of racist comments were discovered.

WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch told 102.5 ABC Perth that he had formally written to Meta, emphasizing that social media companies have a responsibility to remove negative comments. "We've actually written to the social media companies saying we want to close comments after-hours so we prevent these abhorrent, disgusting comments," he said. However, Commissioner Blanch noted he had yet to learn if disabling comments would affect Meta's algorithmic boosting of posts.

Retired police officer and e-safety expert Kristi McVee highlighted the need for police to improve their social media moderation. She also pointed out the risks involved in relying on social media for public information, especially when young people are involved. "From just looking at that image, it's obvious that these are young people, so they could have gone to their local high school," she said. McVee added, "But there has to be a little bit more consideration to what that could do for a young person … it could put them at risk."

Despite these challenges, McVee acknowledged the usefulness of social media for police work, stating, "Social media is such an easy medium to get an outcome and it has been very helpful in the past and that's why police use it."

Sources