As protesters against COVID-19 vaccines and mandates filtered into a city with a 98 per cent double-vaccination rate, tensions between those who are, and are not, vaccinated bubbled under the surface.

While visiting the national capital, some protesters claimed they were denied entry into restaurants and shops for refusing to wear face masks or comply with check-in rules and were quick to leave negative reviews to businesses that enforced public health measures.

But Canberrans were not prepared to stand for it, with many jumping online to counteract the negative reviews.

Peter Barclay is the owner of King O’Malleys, a pub that received negative Facebook reviews after staff members asked a group of people who were not wearing face masks to leave.

The incident in early February resulted in police having to escort the demonstrators from the venue and the pub closing early for the evening and remaining closed for another day.

Some of the negative reviews, still visible online, said the pub was “segregating” people over COVID-19 rules and “discriminated” against “everyday Aussies”.

But Mr Barclay said fans of the pub were swift to jump into action, with many posting in online groups and on social media pages to show their support for the business.

“To see how the community got together, and supported us, in the light of some very unfair social media.

“We were trying to do our best, to keep our customers safe, keep our patrons happy and, of course, our staff most importantly – to look after their welfare.”

The publican said negative social media reviews could stop some people from visiting the venue, so he was grateful that many Canberrans publicly showed their support for the business.

“A small minority of individuals who just sought to do a maximum amount of damage on social media,” he said.

“It was amazing, we got a one-star review and then all of a sudden there were 50 five-star reviews.

Even the ACT’s Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury showed his support, heading down for a chicken schnitzel and posting it to social media.

Another pub, Bentspoke Brewing Co also received an outpouring of support from the Canberra community after an incident with some protesters over the weekend surrounding COVID-19 public health measures.

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Co-founder and lead brewer Richard Watkins said one man from out of town refused to pay by card, and knocked his beer to the ground, smashing the glass, before leaving the craft brewery.

Mr Watkins said that while the incident challenged staff, local support made it easier to manage.

“It’s very hard to serve people who are acting inappropriately and carrying on in a way that we normally would not serve people.

“We’ve definitely had a lot of messages to our social feeds about people witnessing the incident, and people supporting those people as well, and further compliments to the staff. And certainly, people have come into the pub since then and said ‘well I thought we’d come in and show you some support ‘. “

But it was not just the hospitality industry being supported by the Canberra community.

The Lifeline book fair raised more than $ 700,000 in combined book sales and donations after it was forced to cancel the event over the weekend, due to protesters causing damage to the fences and not leaving the campground.

Lifeline CEO Carrie Leeson told the ABC it was “probably hard to describe the depth of gratitude, but that’s the word”.

‘A replication of what happens in real life’

Professor at the University of Sydney, Jonathon Hutchinson said that social media could be used to build online communities, but it was the people who made up those communities who determined whether they were positive or negative spaces.

“It’s a really good way to bring people together … it’s a way to announce a message, attract like-minded individuals to it and then try and group those individuals together,” he said.

But Mr Hutchinson added that while social media could unite people around a cause – like helping out local businesses or even gathering supporters for a protest – that same feature meant it could also be used for “devious” purposes.

“Since social media has been around, people have done this – they’ve got together for whatever cause it might be and spoken with each other, built capacity around individuals, really started to build movements around these sorts of things,” he said.

“But having said that, it is both positive and negative: people helping the homeless or people who need a feed or whatever it might be, through to the more devious kinds of things around misinformation, political deviants, that kind of thing.”

And with the COVID-19 pandemic preventing many face-to-face social interactions, he noted that more people were moving online to support one another.

“We’re not seeing necessarily new things emerge, but we’re seeing a replication of what happens in real life,” he said.