Police are investigating discriminating and racist comments on social media around live broadcasts of events to commemorate the abolition of slavery, reports AT5.

Amsterdam police chief Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg told an AT5 programme that during the Keti Koti events on July 1^st – in memory of the end of slavery in Suriname and the Dutch Antilles in 1863 – potentially criminal comments were made online.

One formal complaint has been made to police, he said, and they are expecting more. ‘I know that people are preparing to make statements,’ he said. ‘It really is very serious. If you see these comments, they are deeply discriminatory and sometimes also racist.’

He said the police wants to get rid of anonymity for such commentators. ‘A file on these people will be handed over to the public prosecutor,’ he added. ‘We are doing everything we can to remove their anonymity to show that in this city we accept no racism or discrimination.’

The NOS reports that it too broadcast the events live and via Facebook. Speakers at the Oosterpark included South African author Diana Ferrus, caretaker justice minister Stef Blok and Amsterdam municipal diversity chief Simone Kukenheim.