Xposé presenter may make Garda complaint over cyber bullying

A TELEVISION presenter who is the victim of a cyber-bullying campaign on a popular social networking site is considering making a formal complaint to gardaí.

Aisling O’Loughlin, 31, a presenter on popular TV3 show Xposé, said that she has already sought legal advice from lawyer Gerald Kean and from David McMunn, director of legal affairs at TV3, in relation to the offensive webpage on Facebook where people can join the “Get Rid of Aisling O’Loughlin from Xposé” campaign.

Ms O’Loughlin said her decision to pursue the matter was not motivated by her own victimisation but by the “lack of policing of cyberspace”.

“I know there are those who would say I am asking for trouble by responding to people who engage in this kind of thing, but my motivation is the lack of regulation in cyberspace, the fact that it is so hard to defend your good name and the fact that there is no recourse to protect yourself,” Ms O’Loughlin said.

The TV presenter said she had been unable to make contact with Facebook by phone to make a formal complaint and that the only response she got to an online complaint was a pop-up menu advising her not to expect feedback.

As a result, she decided to take action herself and posted her own comments on the offensive webpage advising those who had labelled her as “the most annoying woman on TV” to: “Please think twice the next time you plan on writing something horrible on the internet about anybody, because the words don’t just disappear into the ether, they are ultimately published and can have very serious repercussions.”

Ms O’Loughlin said she believed the page may have been started in Cork.

An expert in bullying at the anti-bullying centre in Trinity College Dublin, said they would usually advise a person who was the target of a bullying campaign to make an official complaint to the gardaí.

“A lot of these social networking sites won’t take down offensive material unless gardaí approach them,” said Murray Smith, a research assistant at the centre.

“There is a difference between a teen and a high-profile TV presenter and defamation probably would not work for the former,” Mr Smith said.

A statement from Facebook said that their social networking site helped people “connect and share with each other” and talk about topics they had an opinion on – including public figures – and that “just like the conversations people have offline”, sometimes online discussions covered controversial topics.

The statement said Facebook discussions could “actually promote a healthy and balanced debate” but that if they were alerted to bullying or hateful content in relation to a private individual on Facebook, “then this would violate our terms and would be removed”.

The Facebook page was taken down yesterday.