MP's partner develops tool to document online abuse

A software engineer in Launceston has developed a program to track abusive social media comments after his partner, federal Labor Member for Bass Jess Teesdale, was targeted during her election campaign.

Liam McGrath-Bishop said a violent comment on a housing post featuring Teesdale and Anthony Albanese prompted him to build Clarify. The program gathers public comments and compiles material that can be provided to police.

McGrath-Bishop said Clarify draws comments from platforms including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, sorting them into categories such as spam, abuse, misinformation and threats. Threats trigger an immediate alert, while repeat comments from an account are collected to build an evidence record.

Northern Midlands mayoral candidate Adam Barnett said he began using Clarify after receiving abuse when he announced his campaign on Facebook. He said messages included claims that people knew where he lived, and he wanted to avoid exposing his family to the comments.

Other politicians are trialling Areto, a separate plugin that uses artificial intelligence to detect and hide threatening or abusive posts. It has flagged almost 5,000 threats and violent comments.

Deakin University sociology associate professor Matteo Vergani said tools of this kind could make monitoring accounts more efficient without resolving online hate. His preliminary Australian research comparing abuse directed at male and female politicians found women attracted more hate online.