An Australian comedian has been fired after posting a video that mocked Indigenous culture and included a reference to petrol sniffing. The video, posted by Victorian woman Lisa Jane Spencer, showed her wearing a fur coat with white dot painting on her face, calling herself “Aunty Lisa”, and claiming to be Aboriginal before sniffing a red jerry can. The skit was widely condemned as racist and harmful.
The Australian Human Rights Commission has called for a digital duty of care to prevent social media algorithms from incentivising racist content. In a submission to a federal parliamentary inquiry into racism against Indigenous Australians, the commission recommended that social media companies be required to identify and mitigate risks from algorithms that amplify racist narratives.
First Nations people have reported that online racism is significantly affecting their mental health. Sam Bennell, a Noongar content creator, said his videos promoting Indigenous culture attracted racist comments after being pushed to wider audiences by Facebook’s algorithm. “I haven’t been posting lately because it has been taking a toll on my mental health,” he said.
Jordan Hindmarsh-Keevil, known as Your Online Brother, said Spencer’s video was “racism hidden as ‘comedy’”. He noted that she later posted another video mocking a welcome to country, which included more jerry cans. Meta removed the original video after nine days for breaching its hateful conduct policy.
Carl Lymburner and Irene Leard of the support group Helping Our Mob Everywhere said they hear stories of racism daily. “These narratives create real-world harm, intimidation, threats and community division,” Leard said. The inquiry received over 420 submissions describing a toxic online environment.
