Is the backlash to Tony Veitch facebook comments cyber-bullying?
It didn’t take long for Tony Veitch to become biggest topic of online conversation in New Zealand on Tuesday.
The Kiwi sports commentator had come under fire for a picture he had posted to do with the All Blacks v France match.
Veitch, who pleaded guilty in 2009 to one charge of injuring his partner with reckless disregard, responded with a lengthy Facebook post in which he invited his “haters” to “grow up”.
But despite the general lack of sympathy for Veitch and his comments, internet safety group Netsafe termed some of the reaction online as “overstepping the mark.”
Executive director Martin Cocker said a “mob mentality” had taken hold in some of the responses.
“[People] just become abusive and angry and try to create a public shaming type event out of it, at which point it crosses over from a positive thing to a negative,” he said.
“In the case of these kinds of events, it’s more about the mobs. People are happy to put their name to it because hundreds of people are already shouting their opinions.
“Once people become abusive, they have overstepped the mark,” he said.
It was indeed an odd day on New Zealand social media. Friends cyber-deleted friends, family members seemed to even turn on family members, and hundreds flocked to Facebook and Twitter to fire shots at Veitch and his supporters.
“Just saw that three of my friends liked Tony Veitch’s post about his “hideous relationship” in which he broke a woman’s back. Ugh,” wrote musician Lizzie Marvelly on Twitter.
“Now is a v good time to check which of your friends have liked Veitch’s Facebook page and unfriend them” said Nina.
“its a beautiful day to delete facebook friends who like tony veitch,” wrote Monica Denholm.
Women’s Refuge got among the reaction, posting a series of comments such as “Boo hoo poor tony veitch being reminded constantly of his history of violence against women. #Puhlease #whatAboutHer“.
Musician Anika Moa also weighed in: “I think Tony Veitch needs a PR person to PR every little f***witty thing that comes out of his mouth.”
Cocker said people had the right to express their opinion online but when it crossed into abuse, it meant other’s rights were being impinged upon.
He was worried important issues, such as domestic violence, weren’t being given a fair discourse because of poor internet behaviour.
“It’s a really serious topic, it needs public debate and does need to be publicly discussed, and social media provides opportunity but the use of abuse and harassment shuts down that debate.
