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LAST UPDATE | 2 Sep
TOXIC ONLINE BEHAVIOUR against Irish politicians is so extensive it could deter participation in Irish democracy, media regulator Coimisiún na Meán has warned.
The stark message comes less than 48 hours after gardaí launched an investigation into a specific and detailed online threat against Tánaiste Simon Harris’s young family.
Several candidates in last year’s elections told the regulator they felt obliged to install home security systems and to alter their real-life routines to mitigate the perceived risk of being attacked. This followed online abuse.
“Threats to family members, whether explicit or implied, represented a major source of anxiety and guilt for several candidates,” Coimisiún na Meán said.
Some local election candidates reported that their online abusers demonstrated detailed knowledge of candidates’ routines, family activities and children’s whereabouts
Coimisiún na Meán said the Electoral Commission should consider whether candidates need more choice over the publication of addresses on ballot papers.
A new survey by the regulator indicates well over half of candidates in last November’s general election were subject to offensive, abusive or hateful behaviour on social media or to threats of violence. Some had been impersonated.
Among candidates who reported having been subject to online abuse, more than one in five had received threats to kill them or to cause them serious harm.
Coimisiún na Meán is warning social media companies this morning that it will hold them to account if they do not fulfil their legal obligations to address the online harms it identified.
It pledged to support candidates in the upcoming presidential election to report violations of social media platforms’ terms and conditions.
On foot of the findings of today’s report, Coimisiún na Meán is considering whether to launch a formal review of online platforms’ compliance with the EU Digital Services Act, in particular the article pertaining to content moderation and complaint handling.
Digital Services Commissioner John Evans said Coimisiún na Meán will invite the platforms to meet with it ahead of the presidential election.
The platforms will be told to increase their state of readiness for the election by beefing up their moderation teams or being able to deal with coded local remarks that could amount to illegal content. They will also be told to be alert to deep fakes.
Immigration was the subject most often connected with online abuse of politicians, the survey found.
Among candidates who received online abuse, more than one in eight had been subjected to racial slurs, with an even higher proportion subjected to gender-based abuse.
The most common form of toxic behaviour on social media reported to Coimisiún na Meán’s survey was false information intended to damage reputation.
A majority of local and general election candidates who had experienced toxic behaviour online, particularly women, were left feeling anxious or afraid.
More than a third became worried about their safety or their families’ safety.
One in three had increased their home security as a result of online abuse.
Alongside the survey, in-depth interviews were conducted with 44 candidates. These interviews pointed to a “chilling impact” on Irish political discourse arising from fear of being attacked online, with politicians indicating they self-censor.
“Several candidates suggested that they tended to avoid discussing a wide range of topics online, including migration, sexual orientation, the environment, taxation and housing,” the researchers stated.
The researchers warned that this fear of co-ordinated campaigns of harassment was inhibiting meaningful discussion of important but potentially controversial policy matters.
The in-depth interviews also indicated candidates from migrant backgrounds, women, and members of the LGBTQ+ community received the highest levels of online abuse.
The researchers reported that “widespread frustration” was expressed at social media platforms’ poor responsiveness to threats, abuse and harassment. Only a minority of surveyed candidates subjected to abuse had made a report to a platform, however.
The survey received responses from 66 candidates in the 2024 general election, 17% of the total, and from 226 local election candidates, 12% of those who ran in the June 2024 council elections.
One in four general election candidates who had experienced toxic online behaviour indicated they were now less likely to run for election again.
Almost all candidates surveyed used social media, particularly Facebook and Instagram. Negative behaviour was experienced on these, and on TikTok and X.
Digital Services Commissioner John Evans said the regulator operates a contact centre which can help people if they receive a threat to life or if there is a minor involved. People should also make reports to gardaí and to the platforms themselves, he added.
“We will often in those cases contact the platform directly and see if we can move things on,” Evans said.
He said this has happened over the past 18 months “on different issues relating to minors, sometimes with threat to life” but only once to date in relation to an election.
He added that the platform in question responded effectively in relation to the threat to a politician.
However, Evans added that Coimisiún na Meán is not a “content regulator”, which means it does not have the power to tell social media platforms to take illegal content down.
Asked whether the regulator, established in 2023, has sufficient powers to force social media platforms to take action against the kind of online abuse it has identified, Evans said: “I think we do have the power, and I think we do have enough power, but I think it’s going to take a bit of time to build those cases.”
“You need to build an evidence base of a pattern of a behaviour,” he said.
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