A slew of racist social media comments have been made towards Australians missing in the catastrophic Nepal-Tibet floods, prompting calls for greater accountability of major platforms to remove hateful rhetoric. On Monday, the total number of Australians missing after flash floods triggered by a massive glacier collapse in the Himalayas rose to 43, and the overall death toll was at least 810 people. The majority of the missing Australians were on pilgrimages, including to Mount Kailash in Tibet, which is a sacred site for Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and followers of the Bon faith.
Fourteen are Sydney-based members of the Australia Bharatha Brahmin Samaj community. As families and friends face an agonising wait to learn the fate of their loved ones, mainstream media outlets including News Corp, Channel 7, Channel 10 and Nine have been hit with highly offensive and discriminatory comments on Facebook articles identifying the missing Australians in Nepal. Some outlets, including Guardian Australia, have limited who can comment on posts about the missing tourists after receiving strings of racist replies on social media.
One Daily Telegraph article received dozens of comments on Facebook from people claiming that missing citizens who were not white weren’t Australian, which were later deleted. One said: “Hoping we have new vacancies in Australia that Aussies can fill.” The outlet’s editor, Ben English, said the comments on the post were “abhorrent” and “have no place on our platforms”. One post by conservative commentator, Kobie Thatcher, who wrote “Aussie family” alongside an image of an identified missing couple, was viewed 3.2m times.
Associate Prof at QUT’s Digital Media Research Centre, Tim Graham, said hateful rhetoric had been increasing on social media platforms for the past decade. And that’s amplified by the rhetoric of far-right populist parties,” he said. Hindu Council of Australia vice-president Surinder Jain said it was “saddening” to see people making use of a tragedy to “express their displeasure with the government”.
Australia’s Indian diaspora, which includes Hindus, has been the target of racist comments from far-right movements including March for Australia as immigration has emerged as a hot-button issue. Nepalese Australian Welfare Society president, Chiran Tiwari, said Australians needed to look past nationalities and have humanity.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
