Offensive slurs littered across ABC social media accounts following Stan Grant’s departure

The ABC’s own Twitter accounts are carrying a slew of unmoderated racist slurs against Indigenous journalist Stan Grant.

The ABC’s own Twitter accounts are carrying a slew of unmoderated, disgraceful racist slurs against Indigenous journalist Stan Grant, just days after the Q+A host cited a lack of support from the national broadcaster’s senior management as one of the key reasons for his decision to step down from his on-air role.

Dozens of posts — which are too offensive to publish — were still live in the replies on at least four of the ABC’s popular social media accounts on Wednesday morning. The Australian has notified the ABC of the presence of the posts.

The slurs against Grant, a Wiradjuri, Gurrawin and Dharawal man, on the ABC’s own platforms highlight the public broadcaster’s own failings on the issue.

On Monday, the ABC’s director of news Justin Stevens said: “Sections of the media, particularly in News Limited (sic), will do anything they can to campaign against the ABC.”

In response to those remarks, News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller said that the ABC should stop “passing the buck” and instead focus on its own “internal problems”.

On Tuesday, RN Breakfast host Patricia Karvelas raised the issue of the racist abuse directed at Stan Grant in the public comments attached to News Corp mastheads’ articles online, but did not mention the multiple racist posts that are on the Twitter page of her own show.

Karvelas also failed to offer a single example to back up her claims of racial bias.

The Australian has asked the ABC whether it will alter the way it moderates the comments on its social media platforms, especially its Twitter accounts linked to Q+A, The Drum, Radio National, and ABC Australia.

The Australian also asked the ABC why it simply hasn’t turned off the “comments” option on the accounts.

More than 24 hours after The Australian contacted the ABC, a spokeswoman said: “There is no such thing as ‘Twitter comments’ which can be moderated.

“You also can’t ‘turn comments off’.

“The ability to reply to posts can be disabled, but the ABC, as with most/all media organisations, does this rarely and under specific circumstances.

“Even if replies are turned off, posts can obviously still be reposted by other users and others can post replies to that.

“Due to the increasing incidence of toxic posts on Twitter the ABC has already significantly reduced its presence on the platform and is looking at further measures.”

In announcing his decision last week to step away from his role as Q+A host, Grant said: “No one at the ABC – whose producers invited me onto their coronation coverage as a guest – has uttered one word of public support. Not one ABC executive has publicly refuted the lies written or spoken about me. I don’t hold any individual responsible; this is an institutional failure.”

ABC staff walked off the job around the country on Monday to show their support for Grant and stood outside their respective ­offices, some holding signs that read “I Stand With Stan” and “We Reject Racism”.

ABC managing director David Anderson, who is due to face a Senate Estimates hearing on Wednesday afternoon, announced on Sunday that the taxpayer-funded media organisation would be conducting a review into how it tackles racism within the ABC.

“The ABC is never above scrutiny or criticism. However, the nature of the anti-ABC reporting from some commercial media outlets is sustained and vitriolic,” he said.

“This has real-world consequences for ABC presenters and journalists who are personally ­attacked and vilified. How the ABC supports people in these moments is important.

“Stan Grant has stated that he has not felt publicly supported. For this, I apologise to Stan.

“The ABC endeavours to support its staff in the unfortunate moments when there is external abuse directed at them.”

The scheduling of the discussion panel on the ABC on the evening of King Charles III’s coronation on May 6 drew heavy criticism from the viewing public, with the ABC receiving more than 1700 complaints in the ensuing days.

Grant was among the panel of five guests, four of whom were fiercely opposed to the monarchy. Grant spoke at length about colonisation and the damage the monarchy has inflicted on Indigenous Australians.

“Before we get to the fantasy Australia, the Disneyland Australia, let’s deal with the real Australia,” Grant said in the broadcast.

“Let’s not imagine that we can just look at this ceremony tonight and see this as something that is distant, that is just ceremonial and doesn’t hold weight.”

As the ABC showed vision of hundreds of thousands of people pouring into The Mall in London ahead of the service, and guests arriving at Westminster Abbey, Grant spoke of the pain and injustices for which the monarchy was, in his view, responsible.

“It is scars, it is broken bones and it is too many damaged souls and we need to heal,” he said.

The Australian understands that most of the complainants to the ABC registered their displeasure at the timing of the panel discussion, which was held between 5pm and 6pm AEST.

The scheduling of the panel discussion had nothing to do with Grant; the timing of the programming was dictated by senior news executives.

Originally published as Offensive slurs littered across ABC social media accounts following Stan Grant’s departure