Firmer action needed on social media abuse, says opposition

Labour leader Ivana Bacik has said that the government has created a “vacuum” which allows racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric and misinformation to develop.

On Wednesday (April 1), it was reported that Labour councillor Helen Ogbu, by-election candidate in Galway West, was racially abused while out on a canvass, which left her “shaken.”

Bacik said, “there is a growing vacuum in leadership on migration, and that vacuum is being filled by misinformation and fear.”

“We need a positive, fact-based discussion that reflects reality. Migrants are essential to our healthcare system, to our hospitality sector, to our economy and to our society. Migrants’ rights are workers’ rights, and we cannot continue to tolerate a system that allows exploitation to persist,” she said.

Per the Irish Independent, Labour TDs have had to turn off comments on social media posts involving Ogbu for fear of inviting racist abuse.

Ogbu told the outlet, “I’m even afraid to just go to my social media, and I’m really scared to actually go through them. That’s how bad it is.”

The Galway city councillor said she was fighting back against the right-wing social media narrative that migrants are “spongers” and that migrants “want to give back to society.”

Since Donald Trump’s re-election in late 2024, social media companies have drastically cut down on the amount of moderation on social media platforms in order to curry favour with Trump’s ideology and his supporters.

A September 2025 investigation by The Guardian found that Facebook was a hotbed for far-right, anti-establishment conspiracy theories to grow, with the investigation finding that the platform, since getting rid of moderators at the behest of Trump, had allowed the platform to serve as a breeding ground.

The Guardian investigation found that Facebook was accelerating “distrust in mainstream institutions,” was facilitating “the scapegoating of migrants,” and fueling the narrative that “white British people are fed up”

Likewise, abandonment of Twitter by progressive political parties and candidates was a symptom of this, but Facebook remains the main source of communication and outreach for political parties.

Green councillor and Dublin Central by-election candidate Janet Horner has said that the government needs to step up and tackle racist abuse on social media.

Horner, who was attacked by an anti-immigrant protester when campaigning for re-election in 2024, said “the tiny proportion of radicalised people that peddle racist abuse online and in-person are not representative of the public or the electorate as a whole, but they are dangerous and the government must do more.”

The North Inner City councillor identified a number of actions that the government “must do”, namely “tackling social media companies who amplify hate speech” and to “stop rhetoric from their own Ministers and representatives that seeks to demonise migrants.”

The Green councillor also noted that the government should publish their migrant integration strategy and “make it more ambitious” and properly resource integration teams for local authorities.

Horner said, “racism is not inevitable and should not only be taken seriously at the point it inconveniences ‘the rest of us’. Tackling it and promoting integration and inclusion are fundamental to a cohesive society where we can all thrive.”