Leitrim councillor calls for Citizens’ Assembly to tackle rising hatred on social media

A call has been made for a Citizens’ Assembly to investigate the growing abuse on social media posts.

During November’s meeting of Leitrim County Council, Cllr Enda McGloin urged the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport to consider a review of the role of social media in Ireland, particularly regarding its lack of content regulation and the prevalence of derogatory commentary around religion, racism, politics, and sport.

He emphasised that an assessment should be made of the impact social media-generated hatred has on vulnerable young people, alongside why many commentators can remain anonymous despite making derogatory online comments.

Cllr McGloin described some of the content he has recently seen on social media as “stark and vile,” particularly concerning IPAS centres and religion.

“There’s a scenario whereby people put up stories and someone may comment and there’s then 30 comments that are very racist in some respects in relation to religion, politics and sport,” he said. He added that even when a sportsperson has a poor performance, it becomes “open season” for attacks.

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He also raised concerns about the difficulty people face in getting offensive content removed and how challenging it is to get social media platform leaders to engage with governments, noting that X (formerly Twitter) refuses to engage under any circumstance.

Cllr McGloin specifically referenced abusive comments made about Fine Gael presidential candidate Heather Humphreys during the election campaign, targeting her religion and background.

“These are cowards who decide it’s fair game. As a councillor it’s not good enough in society,” he said.

“I’m saying to anybody that makes these comments to think about the hurt that they cause. I’d say to local media that the type of commentary about the person’s religion, background, and heritage should be blocked because it causes further hate and provokes people into doing actions that we see in the news.”

The motion received widespread support, with Cllr Enda Stenson commenting, “Right across the board there is so much hatred on social media.”

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“The riots that are taking place – young people think it’s the right thing to do now,” he added.