Investigative journalist Kevin Magee looks into problem of internet trolls

Cyberbullying expert reveals the profile of typical online troll in new TV docu film

17 Dec 2024, 19:43 by Sean Murphy · Irish Mirror

Online trolls are “typically younger and male” who spend lots of time down “social media rabbit holes with conspiracy theories”, it is claimed.

The profile of Irish tolls is outlined in a new TG4 documentary Online Hate and Trolling. It airs tomorrow and reveals that almost half of Irish adults have experienced some form of online hate. The claim is made by a cyberbullying expert who hears testimony from online abuse victims as they speak openly about their ordeals.

The expert - Dr Darragh McCashin – warns that social media companies are not doing enough to remove harmful and offensive. Dr McCashin is a Dublin City University assistant professor at DCU’s School of Psychology and is also chairperson of The Observatory on Cyberbullying, Cyberhate & Online Harassment in the Anti-Bullying Centre. He has studied the psychological characteristics of potential online trolls and reveals all tonight as part of TG4’s award winning series Iniúchadh.

The programme demands that tech companies must explain why it remains so difficult for victims to get anonymous, abusive online comments removed. Dr McCashin said: “There is an initial set of demographic predictors of who that person might be. Typically younger, typically male. There is some emerging evidence to say that those who are holding medical cards, Irish born parents, probably have a problematic relationship with technology."

Dr McCashin added: “They spend lots of time on social media, going down perhaps various rabbit holes with conspiracy theories or alternative media. They are not on a mission, they are just out to cause chaos.” He added: “We did a survey of just over a thousand near representative sample of Irish adults. Just under half of them had experience of one form of online hate.

"Pretty much everyone in that sample had witnessed online hate, whether that is racism or consistent harassment of fellow online users. So, we can take from this, it’s highly prevalent to the extent that it is almost normalised. Men are more likely to be targeted because of age and or nationality. Women are more likely to be because of their gender.”

Contributors to the documentary include Fianna Fáil MEP Cynthia Ní Mhurchú, organ donation campaigner Máirtín Mac Gabhann, social media influencer Cian Ó Gríofa, and Belfast-based Irish language advocate Linda Ervine. They all speak openly about the abuse they have endured and how they cope with it.

Cian, 29, receives abuse online when he talks about growing up in Ireland as a young gay man. He said: "It bothers me, especially because of young people who follow me. They can see that hatred and see the negative comments and that's probably not a positive thing for them as they could be struggling with their own identity and sexuality.

"These comments change public attitudes towards gay and marginalised people and people are then more comfortable that they can say so on social media. They go to a point where they feel comfortable saying things like that in real life and then the next step could be an attack and I think we're heading towards a dangerous future.”

MEP Ní Mhurchú was elected earlier this year and has since been regularly subjected to abuse from anonymous online trolls. She said: “Sexual insults, insults because I'm a woman, insults because I'm a politician, and insults because they think my politics is not the same as their politics. They are destroying the mental health of ordinary people.”

Ervine has been targeted by hardline Loyalists because of her efforts to make the Irish language more accessible in Belfast. She said: “It hurts, it hurts, because I'm a human being. I don't want to read insulting things. I don't want to read false accusations. I'm doing my job, that's it.”

MacGabhann, 34, has a campaign slogan Donate4Daithi to raise awareness because his eight-year-old son Dáithí is waiting on a heart transplant. He said: "As our campaign became more successful and we became more vocal, that's when the online abuse began to increase and the type of trolls appeared. The words I saw were really hard to read about my innocent little son. In the beginning I didn't understand how people could write like this about a little boy who is going through a really bad time in his life. It broke my heart."

Investigative journalist Kevin Magee speaks to Appeals Centre Europe about what people can do to resolve content disputes with social media platforms. TG4’s doc An Gréasán Gráiniúil (Online Hate and Trolling) by journalist Magee is on TV from 9.30pm.

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