Channel 9 is in damage control as it continues to air controversial moments from Married At First Sight. There has been no shortage of wild moments from the 2026 season since it kicked off at the start of the month.
But it appears the network is trying to manage audience outrage on social media by disabling comments on the more spicy clips being shared. Dr Jennifer Beckett is a social media governance expert and University of Melbourne lecturer, and she told Yahoo Lifestyle this is very common practice these days.
“Turning the comments off can be quite a controversial move because people feel like you’re censoring them, but I wish more Australians actually knew the legal requirements of the job,” she said.
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Channel 9 isn’t the only network or publisher that does this.
Dr Beckett said virtually all newsrooms now take a much more active approach on their social media accounts following the Dylan Voller case.
Major news publishers were sued by the Northern Territory man in 2019 for defamation because of the comments that were posted on their Facebook, Instagram, X, and other platforms.
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The lawsuit led to a high court ruling that news organisations could be held liable for the posts of their followers because they are hosting and publishing that content.
“The volume of comments that Channel 9 is probably getting is too much for their moderators to handle,” Dr Beckett told Yahoo Lifestyle.
“So, from a legal perspective, that’s the simplest thing to do, turn your comments off. It reduces your risk exposure.
Channel 9 declined to comment when approached by Yahoo Lifestyle.
Which MAFS Instagram posts have been disabled?
The MAFS Instagram page has posted 138 times this season so far, and Yahoo Lifestyle found comments had been turned off on 20 posts.
The most recent post where fans couldn’t comment on was a clip from Tuesday night’s episode where Queensland couple Tyson Gordon and Stephanie Marshall discussed previous relationships and sexual partners.
The conversation got heated as Tyson shared he didn’t like women with a high “body count”, despite him having slept with 20-30 women in the past.
It was one of six clips from Tuesday’s episode that were posted on Instagram, and the other five allowed people to comment.
Interestingly, viewers are now using those posts to call out MAFS and Channel 9.
“Stop turning off comments on posts you know are designed to provoke outrage,” said one fan.
“If rage baiting isn’t the goal, why silence the public response when it works? Producers have a duty of care, not just to participants, but to viewers. Normalising dangerous behaviour for entertainment is not drama, it’s harm. This show needs serious scrutiny. Enough is enough.”
“Why do you keep turning comments off on posts where people are pointing out how your cast are treating people poorly?” added another.
“I want to know why some posts are limited for comments. That’s unfair,” wrote a third.
The other posts that have comments disabled include clips from:
The Red Flag, Green Flag episode during Revelations Week – 4 posts: Brides and grooms listed the good and bad things about their respective partners but contestants either criticised each other or were pretty brutal about their partner
Brook leaving the experiment the first time – 1 post: It came after the 27-year-old model abruptly left the experiment after clashing with her husband Chris
Second dinner party episode – 8 posts: Last Wednesday saw very heated exchanges between some of the contestants, including Bec, Gia, Brook, Alissa, Stella, and Danny
Tyson – 5 posts: Every post has aired his controversial views on women, relationships and politics
After The Dinner Party – 1 post: There was a snippet of Chris talking about why his wife, Brook, left the experiment and how she’s now pregnant and engaged
Channel 9 addresses social media comments – 1 post
Before the 2026 season started, Channel 9 put out a statement on Instagram, which explained how it was trying to look after contestants this season.
“Remember that social media is a space to celebrate, support and encourage our participants,” Channel 9 said.
“Comments are welcome but personal attacks, negativity, racial abuse and trolling will not be tolerated.
“Please report any offensive content using Instagram’s support tools.”
It added that the cast have agreed to not be on social media while MAFS is being broadcast.
Their accounts are currently being looked after by MAFS staffers.
Channel 9 has a massive responsibility over MAFS
Dr Beckett said if there is a social media post about a divisive figure on MAFS, it can invite people to make possibly defamatory comments about that individual.
The network could be liable if someone wanted to pursue legal action over those comments.
But the expert added that turning off comments also helps protect “the mental health of the moderators”.
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She revealed that workers compensation claims have been raised in the past in Australia by social media managers who spend every day wading through vitriolic and hateful comments.
“You have a duty of care towards the people who are in the shows that you’re promoting, because these are very real people, but you also have a duty of care to the people who are moderating that content,” she told Yahoo Lifestyle.
“There is a guideline for the provision of an emotionally safe workspace.
“It’s an incredibly complicated job, and people are making decisions in split seconds.
“Those social media managers are not necessarily just looking at MAFS either.
“So the job is a lot bigger than people actually understand it, and I think that that that is something for people to really take into consideration now.”
Dr Beckett, who helped create the Australian Community Managers guidelines, said it’s not just defamation that social media moderators have to look out for.
It’s also spam, private information, unlawful content like hate speech, harassment and stalking, threats of harm, grooming, copyright, and misleading conduct.
Moderators need to understand how comments might work against legislation like the Online Safety Act 2021, the Criminal Code 1995 (Cth), the Spam Act, and Australian Consumer Law.
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