For the past week and half, the social media feeds of many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been flooded with clips from the same video, posted by a self-declared Australian comedian.<\/p>\n
This video shows a white woman wearing a fur coat with white dot painting on her face. She refers to herself as \u201cAunty Lisa\u201d, and claims that she is Aboriginal, after ticking yes on an Aboriginal identity form. At the end of the video, she says, \u201cI am Aboriginal, end of story\u201d, before sniffing a red jerry can, in an apparent reference to petrol sniffing, a serious issue affecting some Indigenous communities.<\/p>\n
For First Nations people, this is not, sadly, an unusual experience. Online racism is growing<\/a>, bubbling up through social media algorithms that reward and promote divisive content. A federal parliamentary inquiry into racism, hate and violence directed at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples<\/a> received more than 420 submissions, many of which describe an increasingly toxic online environment.<\/p>\n Kamilaroi man Jordan Hindmarsh-Keevil, known on social media as Your Online Brother, is a content creator who speaks out about issues affecting First Nations people. Photograph: Supplied<\/p>\n The Australian Human Rights Commission, in its submission, recommended the government introduce a digital duty of care to require social media companies to \u201cidentify, assess and mitigate foreseeable risks arising from recommender systems and monetisation practices that incentivise the amplification and normalisation of racist narratives\u201d.<\/p>\n Guardian Australia read hundreds of submissions to the inquiry.<\/p>\n Carl Lymburner and Irene Leard established Townsville-based support group Helping Our Mob Everywhere (Home). Their submission describes a rise in offensive content targeting First Nations organisations, groups and individuals including elders.<\/p>\n Leard tells Guardian Australia she hears stories of racism every day from those she works with. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter where they go, they\u2019re judged, they\u2019re labelled, they\u2019re automatically alleged that they\u2019re doing something wrong,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cThese narratives create real-world harm, intimidation, threats and community division.\u201d<\/p>\n Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n Lymburner adds: \u201cI thought anything racist [said on social media], anything tech related is to be banned and put down, but Facebook<\/a> and all the other platforms just seem to let them go.\u201d<\/p>\n Sam Bennell started a social media account to share his deep love of Noongar culture and language. The 27-year-old gained nearly 10,000 followers in just a few months across Instagram<\/a>, Facebook and TikTok, but says when he began sharing more of the traditional culture and language from south-west Western Australia he noticed a distinct change in the comments left under his posts.<\/p>\n \u201cAll the racists started commenting,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n He told Guardian Australia that his videos appeared to be pushed to a wider audience, which was attracting negativity. \u201cFacebook seems to be pushing my content to racist for some reason, which I don\u2019t get,\u201d he says. \u201cI haven\u2019t been posting lately because it has been taking a toll on my mental health \u2026 all that online stuff is just crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018This isn\u2019t edgy comedy\u2019<\/p>\n The video doing the rounds this month was posted by Victorian woman Lisa Jane Spencer, and has been widely criticised as mocking First Nations culture and identity and perpetuating racist and harmful stereotypes. Spencer defended the video as a \u201csatirical skit\u201d and told Guardian Australia \u201cthere should be no limits with comedy in terms of who and what someone can make fun of\u201d.<\/p>\n She compared it to the character of Aunty Tiffany on ABC\u2019s Black Comedy \u2013 a program written and created by and for Indigenous Australians<\/a> \u2013 and characters played by comedian Chris Lilley. Asked if she had intentionally pitched her content to appeal to social media algorithms, Spencer said: \u201cno. I make comedy that I love and find funny\u201d.<\/p>\n Jordan Hindmarsh-Keevil says videos such as Lisa Jane Spencer\u2019s \u2018directly affects the mental health and wellbeing of First Nations people\u2019. Photograph: Supplied<\/p>\n Kamilaroi man and content creator Jordan Hindmarsh-Keevil, known to his more than 80k Instagram followers as Your Online Brother, said he felt the timing of Spencer\u2019s video, which came at the end of Reconciliation Week, was \u201cdeliberate and harmful\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThis isn\u2019t edgy comedy, it\u2019s racism hidden as \u2018comedy\u2019 as a cover to dehumanise and make our people reactive whilst being able to say, \u2018it\u2019s just a joke,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cShe has since doubled down, making another video mocking a welcome to country, including more jerry cans hidden throughout the video.\u201d<\/p>\n