Facebook admits bungling broadcaster Erin Molan’s online abuse complaint

Social media giant Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, admits it failed in the handling of broadcaster Erin Molan’s complaint and only took action once police were involved.

Broadcaster and journalist Erin Molan told a parliamentary hearing that she feared for her and her daughter‘s safety after being threatened by anonymous trolls on social media. Picture: Toby Zerna

Social media giant Facebook admitted they lost the original complaint broadcaster and journalist Erin Molan made about vile comments posted about her on their site and they only took action after a complaint was lodged with police.

The Inquiry into Social Media and Online Safety on Thursday heard Meta, the company who owns Facebook and Instagram, failed to take swift action after Ms Molan informed them of online threats she received including the rape of young daughter were sent to her.

Facebook’s director of policy Australia and New Zealand Mia Garlick told the hearing they could not locate details of the initial complaint made to them by Ms Molan and it wasn’t until police were involved that they took action.

“Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to locate that original complaint and so I think a police report was made and we worked through that process to make sure we were taking appropriate action,” she said.

“The types of threats that she received absolutely violate our policies and it’s absolutely distressing to hear of her experience.”

Ms Molan told the inquiry earlier this week of the torment she had suffered online and said it resulted in her being scared to leave her home.

“It made me fear for my safety essentially, it made me nervous about going outside,” the 39-year-old said.

Ms Molan said more action needed to be taken to ensure big tech was held to account to protect individuals from harmful content.

“There haven’t been any consequences to so many of the actions online,” she said.

“They’ve been anonymous and they have gotten away with it forever and there’s no incentive to stop.”

Ms Molan said in one report she made to Facebook over the horrific messages she was receiving, the same account kept being recreated and she received threats including to kill her unborn child, whom she was pregnant with at the time.

“They (Facebook) came back and said it didn’t meet the threshold for inappropriate behaviour,” she told the hearing on Tuesday.

“If that doesn’t meet your threshold then what does, that’s absolutely appalling.”

Ms Garlick said Meta had enforced proactive technology to quickly act when harmful content is published on their sites but said it was not foolproof and was continuing to be developed.

She said users to the site could easily report harmful content to their site.

“All pieces of content online on the service have the ability to reported to us, it’s a little drop-down arrow on the top right on most pieces of content … that’s the best way for an individual to report that content to us and that goes to our teams of reviewers,” Ms Garlick said.

Many examples of offensive language posted in comments on social media were given during Thursday’s hearing by politicians including inquiry chair, Liberal MP Lucy Wicks, who said derogatory comments remained online.

The inquiry continues and the findings will be handed down in a report to be tabled in parliament on February 15.