Suppressed information is being shared everywhere. No one seems to care

Tuesday, 16 September 2025

Despite injunctions, there are people posting suppressed information in comments on TikTok, Facebook, X, Reddit, and Instagram about the Tom Phillips case. Even Google’s implicated. NZ based media are abiding by court orders. So is there anything the Government or police can do to rein in the tech companies? Lloyd Burr reports.

Whether you agree with the High Court’s injunction on elements of the Tom Phillips case or not, an injunction is an injunction and rules are rules.

They must be followed, or you get the book thrown at you. You could get sent to prison or be given hefty fines. That’s why they’re taken so seriously by journalists, media organisations, and publishers.

But what’s become apparent is a gaping grey area: unlawful comments made by people on overseas-based internet and social media platforms, and results on search engines that breach suppressions in this case.

Because those platforms are based offshore, there’s questions over whether they’re even in the jurisdiction of New Zealand’s laws and law enforcement.

These include Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), Tiktok, and Google. There are other players too, but those are the main ones.

‘Ongoing conversations’ that haven’t started yet

The response from Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith - who also holds the media and communications portfolio - might surprise you.

In essence, he confirms it is a problem and that there hasn’t been an effective solution yet - but accepts he hasn’t asked officials to seek one.

“I haven’t made a specific request,” he says, adding that he will go and seek advice about a solution to it this afternoon.

“There are some practical challenges with modern social media, and the internationalisation of it. That's the broad challenge,” he says. “It's not something we can resolve immediately, that's for sure”.

Is Goldsmith worried these platforms are allowing suppressed details of the case to trickle out?

“There's no question that we do have real challenges about how those laws work in the modern environment. But, you know, we haven't been able to solve that yet,” he says.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon would not say whether the government is powerless to rein in the companies, or even those using the platforms to breach the court’s rulings.

“The suppression orders need to be respected and there is a very good reason for why they will be in place. The court has made a decision around upholding suppression orders and we expect everyone to do exactly that,” Luxon says.

But, of course, people are not.

Have the courts laid a complaint with the police?

It’s up to the courts to make suppression orders and the solicitor general to enforce those orders.

So what does that mean? Does the Solicitor-General lay a complaint with police for every single social media comment or post or search result? That could be tens of thousands of complaints. Or does the High Court lay a complaint with each of the companies that own the platforms?

Goldsmith doesn’t know.

“I’m not a lawyer, I’m not going to provide legal advice for you. But these are the types of legal issues that will be resolved,” he says.

A police spokesperson says they’ve not received any complaints from the courts regarding social media posts that breach suppression. The Ministry of Justice is yet to respond to Stuff.

Stuff has also reached out to the Solicitor General for comment.

And what does Labour say?

Social media platforms are often described as online town squares where ideas can be debated and problems can be aired. But if someone went to an actual town square and flagrantly breached a suppression, the individual would be liable, not the entity that owns the square.

So are the social media platforms liable for the breach or those making the comments? Labour’s technology and media spokesperson Reuben Davidson says this is where the problem lies.

“It’s one of the big uncertainties. There’s a lack of clarity around that,” he says. “It gets complex with the way they sit outside of New Zealand. There’s definitely a responsibility on behalf of the tech giants but there’s also a responsibility from the minister here to take action.

Collins: Do the right thing

Current Attorney-General and former Police and Justice Minister Judith Collins has a message for both the companies providing a platform for the comments, and those making them: “Do the right thing and put the kids first”.

“Despite everyone already knowing all sorts of things or thinking they know it, just think about these poor kids and what they’ve been through and they’re going to have to try to live their lives with this over them.

“As a lawyer, as a human being, as a mother, we need to be really careful,” she says.

Stuff has reached out to Google, Reddit, X and Meta which owns Facebook and Instagram for comment.