Authorities battled with social media giant Facebook for almost 24 hours before it removed a video of Canberra high school students from a far-right page.
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The eSafety Commissioner confirmed her office had been playing a game of "whack-a-mole" since Monday in removing multiple versions of a filmed fight between two ACT teenagers from Facebook and YouTube.
Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said authorities continued to monitor social media for versions of the video, which was shared on a white nationalist page with an offensive caption Wednesday night and not removed until Thursday afternoon.
The students were wearing their public school uniforms.
An Education Directorate spokeswoman said extra supports had been provided to students affected by the circulation of the video. The incident itself had been dealt with by the school as soon as it became aware of it, she said.
"It is extremely disappointing to see this video circulating on social media with what appears to be little regard for the wellbeing of those involved," the directorate spokeswoman said.
"Pages and websites that promote the circulation of content such as this are promoting a culture that is significantly out of step from the culture we encourage in our schools."
ACT Education Minister Yvette Berry called on the community to take a stand against social media pages that displayed bullying behaviours.
"Our schools need the community to support these efforts and appeal to social media platforms to take a strong ethical stand, particularly when it involves minors or causes harm to young people," she said.
Social media companies' response to offensive content was placed under the spotlight in the Senate last Friday. Canberra-based social justice journalist Ginger Gorman, currently writing a book on cyber hate, said Facebook was concerned with its bottom line rather than users' safety.
"Over more than a decade we've seen companies like Facebook and Twitter constantly claiming they are dealing with cyber hate, and yet nothing much changes for victims," Gorman said.
"It's not the guidelines that are the problem. It's their implementation.
"It would be great to see Facebook and similar companies obliged to release data about how many cyber hate complaints they receive and how they are dealt with."
Facebook was contacted via email Thursday afternoon but did not respond by deadline. The company's submission to the Senate inquiry into cyber bullying said its content policies were "developed with the goal of allowing people to expressly themselves freely whilst also ensuring that people feel safe and respected".
"To assist us in escalating reports concerning young people, we have established relationships with several educational departments and other child safety organisations by which they can quickly let us know of any harmful content so that we can promptly review and action," Facebook's statement said.
"We also work with the eSafety Commissioner to respond promptly to any questions or complaints that they receive from young Australians and their families."
ACT Policing is not involved in this week's incident.
Ms Berry confirmed last week the ACT government had no plans to ban mobile phones from schools, with the directorate spokeswoman saying on Thursday public schools instead worked to educate "good digital citizens and engage in respectful relationships online and more generally".
"If something like this happens, we provide support to students who need it and talk with students to remind them of good online behaviour," she said.
