The Online Safety Commission is urging the public to remain patient when lodging online abuse complaints, as concerns grow over delays and rising expectations for swift action.
While some members of the public are beginning to feel impatient, Commission Prosecutor Joshua Singh stresses that trust in the organisation’s processes remains critical, as investigations and content removals cannot happen instantly.
Singh says each platform has its own community guidelines, which must also be considered during assessments.
“Because they have their own guidelines they have to look at. They will look at the post, assess it. Many a times, they remove the post. But then sometimes they say, no, we will not remove the post because it does not violate the community guidelines.”
He adds that incomplete complaint forms and language barriers also slow the process.
“My abuse team, they sometimes find it difficult because postings are in different iTaukei dialects. So they have difficulty in that as well. They have the Kadavu dialect, the Baun dialect. So it takes time to decipher those posts into English language.”
With more than 1,600 complaints already recorded last year and only one matter before the courts, the Commission is reminding the public that while the internet moves fast, justice requires careful, thorough work to ensure outcomes that stand up to legal scrutiny.
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