Online abuse of politicians now 'seeping into real life'

Holly Cairns. Picture: Tony McElhinney

Wearing a disguise while on public transport, changing how constituency offices run and boosting home security are just some of the measures taken by two female politicians in response to abuse.

Social media companies need to take abuse towards women in politics more seriously because this abuse is now seeping into real life, the women said on the Late Late Show on Friday.

Social Democrats TD for Cork South-West Holly Cairns and Green Party TD Neasa Hourigan spoke to Ryan Tubridy about some of the shocking abuse they have experienced as public representatives.

Ms Cairns described how one man started off sending her abusive messages online, then showed up repeatedly at her home.

“Solutions are a really important part of this conversation,” she said. “I don’t really know what the solutions are, but the first step is that we identify the problem and identify the different types of abuse that are levelled at representatives.” 

She went onto say abuse is becoming widespread even outside the political sphere, asking: “Is it the way discourse in social media, you called it the wild west, is that seeping out into society in the way that we see people behave?” 

Ms Hourigan told of being spat at while she was a councillor, and said this has happened more than once in the intervening years. Photographs taken of her home and children were also shared on Facebook without her consent.

“We do need the Big Tech to take this more seriously,” she said. “Because, it’s not just in Ireland, they are having a very malign influence on politics.” She welcomed new legislation around hate speech and harassment, and said An Garda Siochána were helpful when she went to them about the Facebook abuse.

Both women said male politicians also get abuse, with Ms Hourigan saying some examples shared with her on Friday by male colleagues were “eye-watering.” 

“Criticism is fine as long as you are sticking to the policy and it's not a personal attack,” she said. “But we have very much accepted that personal attacks in the course of debate is normal. That politics of hate and outrage is becoming much more common.” 

The host asked them if they think abuse towards women is more sexualised than towards male politicians.

Ms Cairns agreed saying: “It’s definitely a problem for both men and women in politics, we all receive abuse.” 

“I think because nobody ever really wants to speak about it, we haven’t examined the different nature of abuse that comes at us. Something throwing faeces at a TD versus somebody turning up at your house, over and over again – they are different types of abuse and they need to be addressed in two very different ways,” she said.

“And oftentimes the key difference is that it is often sexualised when it comes to women.” 

The full interview is available on the RTÉ Player.