A large rise of anti-immigration rhetoric can be seen in Ireland over the past several years as the Irish government has come under attack over the number of migrants let into the country, further fuelled by the spread of misinformation and disinformation on social media.
In a number of protests and violent incidents targeted towards migrants, Ireland has seen a significant rise in hate-related crime.
The Irish Network Against Racism (INAR) stated in a report from 2022 that the system “recorded 223 criminal incidents, including racist assaults, a record 190 reports of illegal discrimination and 136 reports of hate speech.”
Further described in Euronews by An Garda Síochána, there has been “307 anti-migrant protests in 2022, while in 2023 there have already been 64 demos.”
The organisation defines racism as “any incident which has the effect of undermining anyone’s enjoyment of their human rights, based on their background.”
This could be seen in Ireland on Thursday, November 23 when riots broke out across Dublin. Following the stabbing of a young girl the day prior, when heard to have been committed by a non-Irish national, violence erupted.
As shops were vandalized, city buses set ablaze and members of the Gardaí attacked, participants of the protest, including various far-right groups, could be heard chanting xenophobic slogans such as, “Keep Ireland Irish.”
However, the rise of xenophobia can be contributed to the housing crisis which has continued to worsen, and frustrations have been fuelled over the number of Ukrainian refugees taken in by Ireland.
Averaging at about almost 87,000 Ukrainian refugees since March 2023, Ireland has accepted some of the largest number of refugees per head in the EU, ranking at seventh as reported by The Independent.
Various officials have been very vocal in their opposition to Ireland’s admittance to those seeking asylum. One such person is Fianna Fáil councillor Noel Thomas, in response to a fire started at Ross Hill House near Oughterard, Co Galway. The hotel was set to house about 70 asylum seekers but was burned down in retaliation.
Thomas went on to defend the behaviour, saying “locals were concerned about the possibility of anti-social behaviour coming from a group of young men being isolated in an area like this” reported in the Irish Times.
While there is no evidence to back up his claims, these types of inflammatory comments have been all too common as of recent, spread by the misinformation and disinformation on social media and a lack of regulations over hateful rhetoric.
The difference between misinformation and disinformation is that misinformation can be defined as “false information that is spread, regardless of where there is intent to mislead.”
Disinformation is when “false information, which is intended to mislead, especially propaganda by a government organisation to a racial power of the media” as defined by the Anti-Defamation League.
Reported by the Irish Times, Twitter, now known as X, has one the highest amounts of false information on the internet. The far-right has a predominant presence and the company has failed to prevent hate speech, going against their own guidelines against misinformation.
Further, since 2020 when the misinformation and conspiracy theories centred around the Covid-19 pandemic, they have now taken aim at different topics, predominantly immigration.
The Journal reported how in Dublin after the riots, migrants felt unsafe due to the negative and false portrayal that spread online through the means of TikTok, Instagram, and X.
In addition, “Brazilians who work for food delivery services have been complaining for months of near daily attacks,” said the Journal.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin stated after the riots in Dublin, the issue of these false narratives is incredibly harmful to the ability to uphold democracy and while social media can be tremendously beneficial, society has to take mind of the dangers created through the spread of disinformation.