exclude from the public Facebook page any comments that contained one of
those profanities. Again, Ms Ryan sometimes used the term “blocked” to
include a comment that was “hidden” to the general public.
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Monitoring each comment and deleting it requires a significant effort. Less
effort is required if the comment is to be hidden because automatic filters can
operate. Again, Ms Ryan testified that by utilising the filtering mechanisms to
catch common words, such as all of the pronouns and the like, the vast bulk of
comments, and possibly all of the comments, would be hidden.
72
If all the comments were hidden pending approval, the original article, placed
on the page by the media owner, would appear in exactly the same way as it
would otherwise. Further, any member of the public could share the article in
exactly the same way as it may be shared otherwise; liked in the same
manner; but there would not be any visible comments, except to the
Administrator of the page, the third-party commentator in relation to the
comment placed by her or him and Facebook friends of the commentator.
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In answering the question as to why such a course was not implemented,
Ms Ryan said:
“Because it would involve someone sitting and un-hiding comments all day. It
would, people would still be able to post pictures, memes. They would still be
able to post comments without using the filter. I think people would get
frustrated with their comments not appearing on the page. It, … in my opinion
it wouldn’t make sense.” (T, p 102.)
74
If, on the other hand, the assumption made by Ms Ryan did not operate and no
one ever “unblocked” or rendered the comment “un-hidden”, it would require no
additional staff, but there would not be any comments that could be seen by
the public, other than the defined class of members of the public that were
Facebook friends of the person placing the comment or blog on the public
Facebook page.
75
At the moment, according to Ms Ryan, if Nationwide News posted a
controversial article on, perhaps, a controversial person, where the staff
assessed that members of the public had a certain level of vitriol towards that
person or that situation, the staff will monitor that article and its comments
closely, or more closely, and hide and/or delete comments, where needed. Ms