Last week, Dunedin News admin Daryl Taylor convened a heavy Facebook debate on an article about a Dunedin man being acquitted of rape. The article in question named the accused, Michael Fraser, but did not name the two women who accused him of rape. Daryl linked the ODT article with the caption “Why were the women's names omitted?”
“Because they didn’t want to be contacted by people like you,” answered a page member.
Daryl has been accused of deleting several comments and banning several members of the page for violating his page’s standards, which are partially reproduced here:
- Be respectful of other members, and remember everyone is entitled to an opinion.
- Personal abuse, attacks and threats won’t be tolerated.
- Keep the tone of language reasonable.
Some group members who commented on the post were removed from the group. Others alleged that “valid and calm” comments on the post were deleted. “I am assuming that you have been contacted by some EX members that have been removed from the group for breaking the rules and need to justify to people why they have been removed by embellishing the truth,” said Daryl when asked whether he had removed the posts.
Group members raised concerns about comment censorship, saying that “it’s wrong that someone [unwilling] to have a fair voice for everyone is running the page”. The page has almost 60,000 followers and is one of the most active Dunedin community Facebook groups.
The banner image for this piece and the resulting consequence is real. Evidently this member violated community rules. No similar consequences were enforced for this claim: “It’s all about money girls found out if they take a guy to court they can get $10,000 I know because I was with a girl when a lawyer told her so,” which was made by another Dunedin News member. According to the FAQs on the NZ Police’s website: “The Victims’ Rights Act does not guarantee victims the right to compensation or restitution for the losses and harm they have incurred as a result of an offence.”
The rape allegations, which involves Tinder, was being heavily debated in the comments section, as is par for the course with Facebook discourse. Many members requested the post be taken down because of the “slander, bigotry and misogynistic comments” within the comments section.
Here’s what Daryl, the admin of the page and enforcer of the rules, had to say to some of those members:
- “[We] actually raised our children not to swipe right to have sex with strangers and to respect themselves. Obviously your parents didn’t care what you did.”
- “Where did the horrible man touch you to make you so against men? You don’t sound like someone that likes men, that’s why I made that comment.”
- “Don’t blame me for making it hard for women to speak up, blame the women who provide false evidence.”
Dunedin News is moderated by a “small team from diverse walks of life”, according to one of the moderators, who asked to remain anonymous. Daryl is the sole administrator. Although it is a private Facebook group, a student who spoke to Critic said that “a page with 60k members… validates [the page] as legitimate.”
When Critic initially reached out to Daryl, he said he could not comment as he was “busy deleting members that made rude comments about me”. He later commented that he found “nothing to answer”, and that people have been “embellishing the truth”.
A petition to remove Daryl from his administrator position has already exceeded 1,000 signatures. Daryl even signed the petition himself, possibly in order to comment “And people wonder why they have been removed from the page, disgusting foul comments . Please remove yourselves off the page if you are still on it” on the petition itself.