Far right spreading of misinformation an ‘emergency’, politicians tell Oireachtas committee

The heightened involvement of the far right in the debate about migration and other issues is an “emergency” and requires all political parties to work together, an Oireachtas committee heard on Tuesday.

Fianna Fáil TD Jennifer Murnane O’Connor told the Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth she had a “huge concern” about the use of disinformation by the far right to spread distrust and fear.

“I think we are in a crisis here,” she said. “We need to work together on this.” Her party colleague, deputy Paul McAuliffe, said he agreed. “Jennifer is right. This is an emergency.”

“The last couple of months were the scariest time I have witnessed in politics,” said Gary Gannon TD, a Social Democrats TD from the Dublin Central constituency, where anti-migrant protests flared up recently.

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“They are looking to tear apart the fabric of society,” Patrick Costello TD, of the Green Party, said of the far right. “We need to be weaving the fabric together quicker ourselves.”

The politicians made their comments during presentations and evidence from a range of community and other groups that expressed concerns about the influence of the far right and the spread of disinformation.

They called on more leadership from the Government, for politicians to be more careful in their use of language, and said the media needed to also act responsibly when covering topics that were being targeted by the far right.

Fianna Fáil senator Ned O’Sullivan said “middle Ireland” was very sympathetic to Ukrainians and others who were coming to Ireland seeking safety. However, he said, it was not correct that all the people who were protesting about immigrants were “fascists” or on the far right.

“I don’t buy into this thing about the far right in Ireland. I think it is being blown totally out of proportion, a lot of it I think for political reasons, by people on the far left. I think it suits one side to trade off the other.”

It didn’t look good, he said, that non-Government groups funded by the State that have “well-paid CEOs” are “always first to take part in parades and attack the Government.”

Niamh McDonald of the Far Right Observatory, an organisation that combats far right bigotry and hatred, said digital platforms were driving hate, disinformation, and manipulation.

“Meta, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube are systematically failing to enforce their own community standards including ignoring reported harmful content.

“YouTube, in particular, is assisting in the monetisation of protests and FRO has documented far right entities using payment platforms to raise funds ie PayPal, Stripe, GoFundMe and others.”

Mark Malone, from the same organisation, said it was not easy to work out who was funding far right messaging, but that the amount of money needed can be quite small. “It doesn’t take a lot of money to move material around online.”

Niamh Ní Chonchubair, of Axis Ballymun, said she wanted to compliment Tidy Towns groups who “have emerged as one of the most active, anti-far right, progressive organisations. They welcome people seeking asylum to tidy up our communities and make our communities the best.”

Communities showing solidarity with immigrants “inoculates the hate,” she said. The role played by community groups in this regard was essential because of the lack of trust created by disinformation and praised the role played by community groups in Finglas and East Wall in recent times.

Deputy Costello, responding to senator O’Sullivan, said the far right and the far left should not be conflated. No one on the far left had ever verbally abused a member of his family as had happened frequently with people on the far right, he said.

When the two committee members began speaking at the same time, the chair, deputy Kathleen Funchion of Sinn Féin, interrupted them and said the committee did not want a “back and forth.”

“Personally I do believe there is an element of the far right seriously growing in this country, and they love when there is division,” she said. “They thrive on it.”

Anastasia Crickley of Community Work Ireland, said it was the responsibility of civil society groups to hold a mirror up to Government but they also wanted to find ways to work with Government. The presence of the witnesses at the committee meeting showed that.