Social media 'doing infinitely more harm', says Senator following sustained online abuse

Vivienne Clarke

Social media is doing “infinitely more harm”, Labour Senator Annie Hoey has said, confirming she will no longer be engaging with X, formerly Twitter, following sustained abuse and disparaging comments directed at her.

Ms Hoey told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland the social media platform is not doing enough to tackle abuse at source, adding that it is not good enough for them to say she could email them if she had a complaint about posts.

“I appreciate that these officials cannot respond to every situation, but maybe they could take it further,” Senator Hoey said.

“My big issue with all of this is that it's not being dealt with at source, that the onus is on the person who is receiving these very graphic things being said about them, harmful things.

“I then have to go on report it and if their systems don't work, I then have to go and email them and see what recourse there can be.”

Senator Hoey said the owner of the platform, Elon Musk, is looking to set up space colonies, yet no technology has been developed to combat abuse on the site.

She said she struggled to see how an organisation could stand over its commitment to protect against hate speech when the owner himself had offered to pay a judicial fee if someone wanted to take a case against Ireland’s new hate speech laws.

Ms Hoey said she will not be engaging on the platform any more. She said she will keep her handle so no one could impersonate her, but will not be posting on the account.

“It's not worth the hassle. It's not worth my staff's time, and it's not worth watching other women be dragged through the mud. On a principle, we won't be using it anymore.”