CBA allows anti-Muslim comments on Instagram ad: "terrorist buddies"

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has allowed - for a week - multiple offensive comments against Muslims on a social media post; even though they responded to others who posted.

After Mediaweek requested a response from the bank, the outright racist comments were deleted and an official statement read: “Any content found to be in breach of our Community Guidelines will be hidden or deleted in accordance with our moderation procedures.”

The comments total was 46 at the time of contacting the CBA on Wednesday afternoon. Now there are 23. 

The CBA posted the ad to their official Instagram account on August 18.

Text on the photo of a woman reads, “Safe and fast international transfers. With a CommBank every day account."

The caption reads: “Send money overseas with $0 fees when using NetBank or the CommBank app. Fast, simple and secure.”

The ad is clearly aimed at anyone who wants to transfer money overseas. 

But because of the woman's clothing, anti-Muslim comments flooded the post - and were left unacknowledged for a week until Mediaweek alerted the bank to them. 

Comments included:

- “NO MORE MOOZRATS”.

- “Transfer money to your terrorist buddies.”

- “Reckon we'll find dirty dishes or a certain device under that dishcloth?”

Comments that were allowed for more than a week on the CBA's Instagram post.

CBA allows anti-Muslim comments on Instagram ad

But perhaps most concerning point is that while the CBA allowed the anti-Muslim comments, they responded to others - as can be seen in the screenshots taken by Mediaweek below:

The CBA allowed the anti-Muslim comments but addressed others. Image: Instagram

Sydney man Fyzee (who didn't want to be identified with his surname), posts on TikTok under the handle @speakwithme365 and first noticed the post earlier this week. 

He told Mediaweek, "As someone who works in banking and comes from an immigrant and Muslim background, I genuinely think it’s good to see ads that reflect the people these organisations actually serve.

“What I’ve noticed, though, is that whenever an ad features someone from a minority background, you can almost predict what the comments are going to look like.”

Fyzee made the point in his TikTok that he was alarmed by the number of likes on many of the comments, which indicate support of the racism.

He additonally said to Mediaweek, “I’d like to see stronger moderation of the hateful stuff, because when that behaviour is left unchecked, it can encourage others to join in and pile on, making something that should be completely normal feel controversial.”

@speakwithme365 Day 232 of public speaking. Go have a sook mate. #publicspeaking ♬ original sound - speakwithme365

CBA response to anti-Muslim comments

Mediaweek contacted the CBA via email and telephone on Wednesday August 26.

We received the following response on Thursday August 27 from a spokesperson:

“CommBank is committed to maintaining respectful and constructive conversations across our social media channels.

“We will not tolerate content that is abusive, defamatory, discriminatory, or otherwise in breach of our Community Guidelines.

“Any content found to be in breach of our Community Guidelines will be hidden or deleted in accordance with our moderation procedures.”