Take down page that insults Aborigines, minister urges Facebook

The government has accused the social networking company of using its US base to avoid Australian anti-discrimination laws.

The Aboriginal Memes Facebook page has created a furore in Australia with its depictions of indigenous Australians as drunks and welfare cheats.

Australia’s media watchdog, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, is investigating complaints about the page and Race Discrimination Commissioner Helen Szoke said it could breach Australian anti-discrimination laws.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said his 
office had called on Facebook’s Sydney office to take the 
page down. But he said the 
page had recently been 
reclassified “controversial humour” and that Facebook maintained it did not adjudicate on humour.

Mr Conroy said the creator of the page, whom he believed 
was a 16-year-old Australian 
living in the west coast city of Perth, was getting around Australian anti-discrimination laws through US guarantees of free speech.

“We don’t live by American laws here in Australia; we live by Australian laws,” Mr Conroy told Australian Broadcasting Corp. television. He added: “Facebook should take this site down.”

Facebook said in a statement issued by its Sydney office that it sometimes restricted access to content that violated local law and was engaged in a constructive dialogue with Ms Szoke.

Some offensive images disappeared from the page on Wednesday and all were gone by yesterday.