THE father of a young West Belfast boy who is waiting on a heart transplant has spoken about the abuse that online trolls have posted about his eight-year-old son Dáithí.
Máirtín MacGabhann has led a social media campaign, Donate4Daithi, which inspired people across Ireland and beyond to register on the organ donation waiting list. But his work has also attracted abuse from online trolls.
Speaking on a new TG4 documentary – An Gréasán Gráiniúil – to be aired on Wednesday, Máirtín explained: "As our campaign became more successful and we became more vocal, that's when the online abuse began to increase and the type of trolls appeared.
"The words I saw – they were really hard to read about my innocent little son. In the beginning I didn't understand how people could write like this about a little boy who is going through a really bad time in his life. In fact, at that time it broke my heart."
Almost half of Irish adults have experienced some form of online hate, according to an expert on cyberbullying interviewed for the TG4 documentary.
Kevin Magee
The programme ‘An Gréasán Gráiniúil’ from award winning series Iniúchadh TG4 and presented by investigative journalist Kevin Magee hears from victims of online abuse who speak candidly about their experiences and feel not enough is being done by social media companies to remove harmful and offensive comments posted on their social media accounts.
The programme asks why it is so difficult to get anonymous, abusive online comments removed and asks if enough is being done even with a new online safety code to protect ordinary users from abuse meted out by trolls.
The programme hears an assessment from cyberbullying expert Assistant Professor Dr Darragh McCashin from Dublin City University School of Psychology, and Chair of The Observatory on Cyberbullying, Cyberhate & Online Harassment in the Anti-Bullying Centre on the psychological characteristics of a potential online troll.
“There is an initial set of demographic predictors of who that person might be. Typically younger, typically male. Some emerging evidence to say that those who are holding medical cards, Irish born parents. Probably have a problematic relationship with technology, so lots of time spent on social media going down perhaps various rabbit holes with conspiracy theories or alternative media. They are not on a mission, they are just out to cause chaos,” said Dr McCashin.
Dr Darragh McCashin, Dublin City University School of Psychology
He tells the programme that a survey he worked on reveals the extent of online abuse witnessed by Irish online users.
“We did a survey of just over a thousand near representative sample of Irish adults. Just under half of them had experience of one form of online hate. Pretty much everyone in that sample had witnessed online hate whether that is racism or consistent harassment of fellow online users. So, we can take from this, it’s highly prevalent to the extent that it is almost normalised. Men more are likely to be targeted because of age and or nationality. Women more likely to be because of their gender.”
Social media influencer Cian Ó Gríofa, Fianna Fáil MEP Cynthia Ní Mhurchú, organ donation campaigner Máirtín Mac Gabhann and Belfast-based Irish language advocate Linda Ervine all speak openly about the abuse they have endured and how they cope with it.
Cian Ó Gríofa, 29, says he often receives abuse when he talks openly online about his sexuality and experiences growing up in Ireland as a young gay man. Speaking in Irish, he said: "I would say it bothers me. Especially because of young people who follow me. They can see that hatred and see the negative comments and that's probably not a positive thing for them as they could be struggling with their own identity and sexuality.
Cian Ó Gríofa
"These comments change public attitudes towards gay and marginalised people and people are then more comfortable that they can say so on social media. They go to a point where they feel comfortable saying things like that in real life and then the next step could be an attack and I think we're heading towards a dangerous future,” Mr Ó Gríofa added.
Since elected a member of the European Parliament for the South Constituency earlier this year, Fianna Fáil MEP Cynthia Ní Mhurchú says she is regularly subjected to abuse from anonymous online trolls.
Cynthia Ní Mhurchú
In the programme, Ms Ní Mhurchú describes in Irish the type of abuse she is subjected to daily. “Sexual insults, insults because I'm a woman, insults because I'm a politician and insults because they think my politics is not the same as their politics. They are destroying the mental health of ordinary people.”
Belfast Irish speaker Linda Ervine explains how she feels about the abuse she receives from hardline loyalists because of her efforts to make the Irish language more accessible in the east of the city. “It hurts, it hurts, because I'm a human being. I don't want to read insulting things. I don't want to read false accusations. I'm doing my job – that's it," she said.
Kevin Magee speaks to Appeals Centre Europe about what people can do to resolve content disputes with social media platforms.
An Gréasán Gráiniúil airs on Wednesday 18 December at 9:30pm on TG4 & TG4.ie.
