Almost half of all comments on MPs' social media flagged as abusive

Key points

• Almost half of more than 460,000 comments on the social media accounts of 22 Labor politicians were classed as abusive between July and October, according to data from an AI tool called Areto. Of the 2,497 threats and 2,487 comments using violent language, examples included calls for a politician to be shot and hanged.
• Facebook carried about 94 per cent of the comments, and 51 per cent of those were abusive.
• Finance Minister Katy Gallagher said the abuse was having a chilling effect on community engagement, while Housing Minister Clare O'Neil criticised platforms for profiting from it.