Jacinta Price taunted with vile abuse as she supports Kerri-Anne Kennerley in racism row
Facebook has suspended the social media account of Alice Springs councillor Jacinta Price after she shared messages of vile abuse she received for speaking out in support of Studio 10 presenter Kerri-Anne Kennerley following a racism row.
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Facebook has suspended the social media account of Alice Springs councillor Jacinta Price after she shared messages of vile abuse she received for speaking in support of Studio 10 presenter Kerri-Anne Kennerley following a racism row.
Events leading up to the incident began when TV veteran Kennerley criticised crowds who marched against Australia Day and argued they should be putting their energy towards addressing more pressing problems in indigenous communities on Monday’s show, prompting fellow panellist Yumi Stynes to label her a “racist”.
In The Daily Telegraph, Price responded, writing Stynes used “the oldest and most cowardly trick in the book, shutting down debate by crying ‘racism’.”
JACINTA PRICE: YUMI IS WRONG ABOUT KERRI-ANNE
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“The really dangerous racism is turning a blind eye to the facts of the matter, so that Aboriginal women, children, yes and even men, continue to suffer horrific lives … It’s not going to stop by blaming Captain Cook and Arthur Phillip or through long term, symbolic gestures that one day, just maybe, might improve things,” Ms Price wrote.
But after writing the opinion piece and speaking on Studio 10, Ms Price was inundated with vile messages from men attacking her on Facebook using violent and misogynistic language.
Ms Price decided to out them and shared the messages on her page, but instead of suspending the accounts of her abusers Facebook froze Ms Price’s page, preventing her from posting anything.
“This post goes against our Community Standards on harassment and bullying,” Facebook said in a message to Ms Price.
Ms Price told the Telegraph on Wednesday morning she was appealing Facebook’s decision.
“I think those who do these sorts of things know how to use Facebook in their favour and know how to shutdown any retaliation,” she said.
“Last night I posted a screenshot of those messages and probably five to 10 minutes after that I was banned.
“I’m going through the Facebook help centre to have the ban lifted and do something about these individuals.
“It pisses me off to be honest, it makes me angry … it just makes me angry people can so easily attack someone.”
Ms Price said she had been left shocked at the move.
“I decided to name and shame on my political page and was soon banned from Facebook because of their so-called community standards on bullying and harassment,” she said.
“It seems Facebook condones violence against women.”
Other Indigenous leaders have also spoken in support of Kennerley, including Health minister Ken Wyatt.
“We have reached a point of political correctness in this country where people cannot talk about difficult issues for fear of being ¬accused of racism,” Mr Wyatt told The Australian,
“I’ve seen Aboriginal women bear the scars of domestic abuse.
“Let’s tackle those things first before we worry about Invasion Day.”