Cork County Council 'aware' of fake Facebook page posting right-wing content and using former logo

A fake Facebook page purporting to be an official site being run by Cork County Council is churning out toxic content, including anti-immigration material, extolling violence and right-wing propaganda.

The page looks as though it’s the official 'Cork County Council' site and is headed with its logo's coat of arms. However, on close inspection it can be seen that it’s an old logo which hasn’t been used by the local authority for several years and has since been updated.

The page states that it's a forum for feedback regarding service quality and any other issues under the remit of the council.

It’s understood the site originally became operational around 2010, but wasn't created by the county council.

Content has changed

For several years it carried normal commentary from community organisations and individuals about local authority issues and general messages about what was going on in local communities across the region. But in recent times, the content has changed, often adopting a right-wing agenda.

And while some commentary remains benign, in a lot of cases it seems to have been recently ‘hijacked’ and several posts now containing very toxic commentary.

Who hijacked the page remains unknown, but there is speculation that it may be the work of rogue foreign-based state-supported hackers or far right groups based in Ireland and Europe.

The often vile contributions have not gone down well with the county council, unsurprisingly.

The Echo now understands Cork County Council complained to Facebook but as yet the media company hasn’t taken the page down or attempted to remove the toxic comments which are being posted on it.

Fianna Fail councillor Patrick Donovan said he was “shocked” to see this page operating under the supposed logo of Cork County Council.

“It’s bringing our organisation into disrepute sharing racist, right-wing propaganda and vile statements under our logo. Every effort should be made to ensure this page is shut down permanently,” 

he said.

“In a world where people believe everything they see on social media, I would hate to think that there are people out there who think this is what we stand for," he added.

Mr Donovan said the council needs to urgently issue a statement disassociating itself from this page and every effort must be made to shut it down immediately.

"Cork County Council does excellent work via their official social media accounts highlighting the work we're doing the length and breadth of the county," he said, "and seeing a fake page like this being so active online is disgusting."

A Cork County Council spokesperson said it was aware of the matter but was not in a position to comment further at this time.