The admins of a popular New Zealand deals group on Facebook are being accused of silencing Black Lives Matter discussion.
Vic Deals, which boasts more than 150,000 members, posted a public statement today after page administrators were criticised for removing comment threads discussing race and racism in the group.
Although it was originally conceived as a group for students to buy, sell and exchange items, Vic Deals has grown into somewhat of a community hub and discussion point.
Safari Hynes of Wellington posted in the group on Friday discussing colonisation, and claimed that his post was removed for "inciting violence" and "posting hate speech".
"Vic Deals has a 151k following - this is dangerous to know that a platform this large is being run by racists," he wrote.
Mr Hynes then started a spoof page called Dic Veals, where he complained about his treatment at Vic Deals and encouraged open debate about race issues.
Other people accused the page's administrators of tolerating racist and offensive comments, and of not doing their job in enforcing the group's own rules against abuse.
In a statement posted on the group this morning, administrator Siobhan Mirren Henderson said the issue had been discussed within the group's administration team.
"We have endeavoured to minimise any issues by deleting comments that may cause upset or lead to in group fighting over the current levels of racism within NZ," she said.
"While we are aware there is racism within this country, we are doing our best to allow people to voice their opinions in as respectable a manner as possible.
"However, a lot of the comments have lead to threats on life, personal details being shared publicly and putting others in danger.
"As an admin team, we do not allow racism of any sort in this group and as stated in the rules you may be muted, deleted or banned from the group.
"We understand that this group is widely used as both a platform to ask questions and gain advise (outwith the usual deals, room to rent or pic of Mittens etc) and we appreciate that members have been utilising the group for these reasons - however, we are trying to monitor every post at the moment, receiving numerous reports on comments and still live our daily lives."
Ms Henderson noted that a poll had been created in the group asking members whether or not posts around race issues should be allowed in the group.
The ability to comment on the statement had been turned off.
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