{"id":503569,"date":"2026-02-25T17:40:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T17:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/503569\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T17:40:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T17:40:13","slug":"channel-9-in-damage-control-as-aussie-mafs-viewers-rage-over-controversial-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/503569\/","title":{"rendered":"Channel 9 in damage control as Aussie MAFS viewers rage over ‘controversial move’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Channel 9<\/a> is in damage control as it continues to air controversial moments from Married At First Sight<\/a>. There has been no shortage of wild moments from the 2026 season<\/a> since it kicked off at the start of the month.<\/p>\n

But it appears the network is trying to manage audience outrage on social media by disabling comments<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/p>\n

Channel 9 isn’t the only network or publisher that does this.<\/p>\n

Dr Beckett said virtually all newsrooms now take a much more active approach on their social media accounts following the Dylan Voller case.<\/p>\n

Major news publishers were sued by the Northern Territory man in 2019<\/a> for defamation because of the comments that were posted on their Facebook, Instagram, X, and other platforms.<\/p>\n

Do you have a story? Email stew.perrie@yahooinc.com<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“The volume of comments that Channel 9 is probably getting is too much for their moderators to handle,” Dr Beckett told Yahoo Lifestyle.<\/p>\n

“So, from a legal perspective, that’s the simplest thing to do, turn your comments off. It reduces your risk exposure.<\/p>\n

Channel 9 declined to comment when approached by Yahoo Lifestyle.<\/p>\n

Which MAFS Instagram posts have been disabled?<\/p>\n

The MAFS Instagram page has posted 138 times this season so far, and Yahoo Lifestyle found comments had been turned off on 20 posts.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

It was one of six clips from Tuesday’s episode that were posted on Instagram, and the other five allowed people to comment.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, viewers are now using those posts to call out MAFS and Channel 9.<\/p>\n

“Stop turning off comments on posts you know are designed to provoke outrage,” said one fan.<\/p>\n

“If rage baiting isn\u2019t 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\u2019s harm. This show needs serious scrutiny. Enough is enough.”<\/p>\n

“Why do you keep turning comments off on posts where people are pointing out how your cast are treating people poorly?” added another.<\/p>\n

“I want to know why some posts are limited for comments. That\u2019s unfair,” wrote a third.<\/p>\n

The other posts that have comments disabled include clips from:<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Tyson – 5 posts: Every post has aired his controversial views on women, relationships and politics<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Channel 9 addresses social media comments – 1 post<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“Remember that social media is a space to celebrate, support and encourage our participants,” Channel 9 said.<\/p>\n

“Comments are welcome but personal attacks, negativity, racial abuse and trolling will not be tolerated.<\/p>\n

“Please report any offensive content using Instagram’s support tools.”<\/p>\n

It added that the cast have agreed to not be on social media while MAFS is being broadcast.<\/p>\n

Their accounts are currently being looked after by MAFS staffers.<\/p>\n

Channel 9 has a massive responsibility over MAFS<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The network could be liable if someone wanted to pursue legal action over those comments.<\/p>\n

But the expert added that turning off comments also helps protect “the mental health of the moderators”.<\/p>\n

SHOP:<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“There is a guideline for the provision of an emotionally safe workspace.<\/p>\n

“It’s an incredibly complicated job, and people are making decisions in split seconds.<\/p>\n

“Those social media managers are not necessarily just looking at MAFS either.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

It’s also spam, private information, unlawful content like hate speech, harassment and stalking, threats of harm, grooming, copyright, and misleading conduct.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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