In New Zealand, COVID-19 related pressure has led to large instances of online abuse and hostility. The Human Rights Commission with their campaign “Dial it Down” is asking Kiwis to keep conversations civil.

The Human Rights Commission, an independent crown entity of New Zealand, officially launched the campaign late last year.

According to a report by Guardian, human rights commissioner Paul Hunt said it was prompted by the rising trend of division and anti-social behaviour.

"We normally have around 200, now we're getting up to 700-plus complaints a week," Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon told Morning Report.

People around the city started putting up posters with graphics, cartoons, and slogans asking New Zealanders to “dial it down a notch,” “read it before you hit enter,” and “comment with dignity”. Cartoon characters were seen urging keyboard warriors to consider “what would your mother say?”

The significant rise in abuse and extremist chatter on social media started in mid-2021, according to Kate Hannah, a principal investigator at research institute Te Pūnaha Matatini. Researchers observed an overall jump in the use of violent language and graphic imagery along with increased threats to lynching, sexual violence, misogynistic language, and profanity, reported The Guardian.

The officials believe most of this behaviour can be a side-effect of the pandemic stress during the long months of lockdown. People are struggling emotionally, financially, and mentally making them feel powerless. They are struggling to cope and therefore, sometimes people are taking the frustration out on others.

This wave of abuse has flowed toward journalists as well. The communicators of the pandemic policy often infuriate both parties who see them as the government’s puppets and who consider them over-critical of the government’s policies.

Some of the protests had turned extreme in the recent past. Protestors gathered around the parliament and screamed at journalists that they will be soon put on trial and killed for treason. “Just got told I’m going to be executed by a woman holding a sign saying, ‘love is the cure’,” News reporter Kristin Hall wrote on Twitter.

The frontline workers tasked with enforcing vaccination or masks were also abused.

However, the increase in abuse was not exclusive to anti-government or anti-vaccine groups, they were directed across the political spectrum, Maiki Sherman, chair of the parliamentary press gallery told The Guardian.

According to Sherman, researchers found that mostly Māori women were subjected to abusive comments. Other complaints were from people with mask exemptions due to disability. People shouted at them considering them as a part of a group with an anti-health-regulations stance.

Sherman speculates that the rising rhetoric may be driven by a deeper issue as the country’s policies have shifted to emphasize greater freedoms for the vaccinated.

Hunt remarked that the publicity campaign may not be sufficient to calm down the abusers but it sure will help. “Of course, it’s a very complicated picture. We’re not suggesting our campaign is going to solve it these things are complicated, and they require multi-dimensional responses. But we thought this campaign had a role to play,” he said.