PEOPLE need to fight back against the far-right, especially those online who are using the internet to influence young people, a talk in West Belfast has heard.
'Combating hate and understanding the far-right' was organised by Tar Anall and Upper Springfield Development Trust.
Naoise Ó Cuilín from USDT said there was a need to educate people to ensure far-right ideology does not gain prevalence in West Belfast.
"We are doing a Communities In Transition (CIT) programme across West Belfast focused on exploitation," he explained. "One of the elements of exploitation that we have identified is far-right exploitation of young men and women online and we've seen what happened in Ballymena and South Belfast.
"We want to make sure nothing like that is replicated in West Belfast. We are not naive. We know that the racism exists and minorities have been attacked in the past.
"We want to make sure that education is there for people to know where that sort of phenomenon of far-right exploitation is coming from and how to tackle that.
"We are holding a number of talks across West Belfast, especially with youth groups and community workers.
"We know about how young people can be influenced online. We all want West Belfast to be a strong anti-racist community."
Fra McGuinness (Tar Anall), Naoise Ó Cuilín (USDT), Stiofán Ó Nualláin (Trademark) and John O'Hagan (Tar Anall)
Stiofán Ó Nualláin from Trademark Belfast who delivered the talk and presentation on Friday said people need to fight back against the far-right.
"This is a roadshow across West Belfast, which is about encouraging community activists and political activists and youth workers to give them a kind of insight into the influence of the internet over the over the minds of young people and particularly the influence of the far-right online and what they might do to combat that," he explained.
"I believe this a bigger issue than people aren't taking it seriously. We should do and there are huge issues there about how we respond.
"They seem to have free reign to spread hate, disinformation, misinformation with no consequences and that's very dangerous for our kids and our communities. It is also very dangerous for democracy in the long run.
"I think it's a real serious threat to democracy first and foremost, but it is also a threat to our kids and even things like self-harm and pushing young men to go down rabbit holes.
"It's really negative, and no one's really doing anything about it and until the state responds we have a responsibility to do something.
"The far-right are colonising space on the internet. It is a hostile space for others with progressive views. That is the challenge for us all."
