I thank the committee for the invitation. Hope and Courage Collective was set up in 2021 and is an independent national organisation supporting communities and civil society across Ireland to be resilient in countering the far right and the spread of hate and disinformation. We have developed a cycle-of-hate framework to help understand how different aspects of political leadership, digital platforms, mainstream media and disinformation create the conditions for haters to shift power in our communities and democracy.
Over the past two years, we have tracked huge growth and spread of hate online and offline, the mainstreaming of far-right ideas and language, and the hardening of progressive policies. This is led by a small core of ideologically committed far-right actors who constantly stoke hate, fear and violence. They benefit by making us afraid of one another and they distract by scapegoating and turning us against one another. The escalation of violent rhetoric, threats and attacks leaves people and communities targeted by hate and racism, feeling increasingly unsafe and afraid to speak out.
Calls to racist violence were recorded across all social media platforms in the lead-up to riots in Dublin, in Belfast and across England. In the past two years, Hope and Courage Collective has provided rapid response supports in 124 incidents. Our community engagement programme provides high-intensity outreach and community support to 58 communities who pride themselves on being welcoming and know what their communities need to thrive. This includes providing support to respond to the two Dublin riots and violence in Belfast, six incidents of election interference, eight of LGBTI hate, library disruption and intimidation, and 41 responses to anti-migrant protests.
This has been driven by the business model of social media platforms, which prioritises emotionally manipulative content through algorithms that drive sharing and engagement for profit. This distorts what people believe to be true, manipulates emotions and heightens tensions. In reality, a handful of big tech corporations and billionaires, who serve their own interests, put people, communities and our democracies at risk. Despite consistent reporting by Hope and Courage Collective of illegal and harmful content to platforms, there remains a huge gap between reporting and removal. Since 2023, there have been huge cuts to trust and safety teams. As a result, harmful, hateful and defamatory content, incitement to violence and disinformation posts remain online, with little action taken by platforms for their removal.
In tandem, there is a failure of the State to protect people seeking asylum without accommodation and those in accommodation centres, who are constantly harassed and targeted by far-right actors. There is also a failure to protect public sector workers, which is acutely felt in libraries and schools, who are often at the sharp end of hate groups whose messages proliferate online.
We welcome the introduction of the Digital Services Act and the powers given to Coimisiún na Meán. The soon-to-be adopted online safety code is extremely important. It is new and untested, however, and it is hard to say how effective it will be in holding platforms to account. This approach is also reliant on trusted flaggers, the public, civil society and others to report harmful and illegal content. An emerging issue is the treatment of trusted flaggers, with no funding made available. There is also a lack of clarity on definitions of illegal and harmful content. We would welcome greater clarity on this in order that social media platforms do not evade accountability.
There is work to be done to increase public literacy on what people can do to keep themselves and their data safe online. It is, however, the responsibility of platforms to be transparent and accountable for the harms they cause. An Garda Síochána's response to online and offline hate is also uneven across the country, although there are some interesting new cases in train.
In the same way there is no single cause that leads to the cycle of hate, there is also no single solution. Instead, it is important to think about what is needed at a societal level to protect the freedoms of us all to thrive irrespective of where we are from, whom we love, our gender or our status in society.
