It was a post that sparked outrage and thousands of comments.

A person with the account name 'Marta Hemming' wrote on 23 September that she was going to vote no in the same-sex marriage survey because of a text message she'd received from the yes camp.

"Well I was voting yes until today but your unsolicited text message telling me what to do made me change my mind," Marta wrote on a post to the 'YES to Marriage Equality' Facebook page.

"Sending me an unsolicited, politicised message to my private phone, in my private time whilst I am caring for my dying mother telling me what to do and how to vote is NOT OK."

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Whatsapp Marta Hemming's post.

The post was picked up by the Daily Mail, quick to point out that the text messages was turning voters off the yes campaign.

This post was then widely shared on Facebook, and the organisers of the YES to Marriage Equality Facebook page said more than 10,000 commenters got bitter, angry and hurt.

On Thursday, five days after Marta's post, 64,372 people were talking about 'Marta Hemming', according to Facebook's 'trending' stats.

Fiona Newton from Melbourne, who commented on the Daily Mail's Facebook post, said she felt the no campaigners were trying to silence her.

"There was such a furore about the text message from the no campaigners and it was already an emotional point and people were tired of people trying to silence us," she told Hack.

"I'm sceptical that those people were ever going to vote yes," she said.

"They're trying to silence us and provoking a lot of people in our community."

Who is Marta Hemming?

But within five days of the original post, Marta Hemming suddenly disappeared. There is no sign of her on Facebook. We've also looked for her on LinkedIn, Instagram and Snapchat. There is no-one by the name of Marta Hemming on the electoral roll.

There's a chance that Marta doesn't go by her real name on Facebook, but her lack of a digital footprint raises questions.

The Daily Mail's original online story is still up, but its Facebook post of the story has been taken down.

It turns out we're not the only ones asking who Marta Hemming is.

Trans Health Australia, an advocacy and support network for transgender and transsexual Australians, wrote on their Facebook page to be aware of trolls.

"We've just done an extensive search on this Facebook account, and there is nothing to substantiate this is even a real person and is most likely not even a female," they said.

"The lack of posting history and any content on their FB profile is also evidence this is also a fake trolling account."

Separating fact from fiction in the same-sex marriage debate

As this campaign continues we are seeing reports, comments and advertisements that are not from either side of the debate.

Early on, a hateful poster was circulated, purporting to be from the no campaign.

It was eventually discovered this was not true.

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Whatsapp This anti-LGBTI poster was photographed in Melbourne on 21/8/2017 in the lead up to a national postal vote on same sex marriage.

Monica Doumit, a spokeswoman for the Coalition for Marriage, which is campaigning against same-sex marriage, says people shouldn't take every report or Facebook post at face value.

"I think that it's important to have scepticism when you see reports or advertisements and flyers particularly when they seem outrageous," she said.

Monica says she receives several campaign letters a week that say they're from the no campaign when they're not.

"We often get sent materials from news outlets asking us to comment on that say they're from our campaign and we can see they're not," she said.

"I think that everybody would be better off if cooler heads prevailed.

"This debate can be so emotional."

Alex Greenwich from the Yes to Marriage Equality group said the yes campaign was focussing on real people and real stories.

"Just because it's on the internet doesn't mean it's true," he said.

"Everybody just needs to remind themselves that this is a reform that affects real people and they should talk to work colleagues or people you know, and trust real conversation with real people."

Hack has contacted the Daily Mail and Facebook for comment.