The Australian military said it will have “zero tolerance” towards serving members found to be involved with the Facebook page SNAFU - Situation Normal All F****d Up.
The page contains graphic images and condones rape against women and children.
The Victims Of Abuse In The Australian Defence Force Association allege that at least 100 serving defence force members are part of the group.
It said it analysed eight per cent of the 30,000 likes on the site and allegedly discovered the serving members.
“We're clearly as unhappy about that page as everyone else is. It's a pretty awful page,” Vice Admiral Ray Griggs told a Senate estimates hearing in Parliament on Wednesday.
“We have a separate investigation running within the [Defence] department to see if we can identify any serving members who are clearly identifiable and who may have been involved.”
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The Vice Admiral revealed the Association had contacted it about the SNAFU page in July and it tried on three separate occasions to get Facebook to remove it.
The second highest-ranking member of the ADF said it was inevitable a small number of the 90,000-strong Australian military would engage in unacceptable behaviour.
“Regrettably, zero tolerance does not equal zero incidents,” Vice Admiral Griggs said.
“The important thing for us is that our people know when we say zero tolerance, we mean it and we take action.”
