Transgender woman threatened online days after Cork attack

'Facebook repeatedly refused to deal with the page and the resulting death threats,' said a spokesperson for transgender support group Gender Rebels Cork.

A transgender woman who was beaten on a Cork City street was threatened online in the days after the attack, prompting renewed calls for tighter controls on social media platforms.

Several comments were posted on a Facebook page, some of which contained false allegations about the victim, some which threatened her, and others which sought to justify the attack, the Irish Examiner has learned.

The Facebook page on which many of the comments were posted has since been deleted.

However, the trans community expressed concern that such material can be posted online — especially at a time when there is rising violence towards trans people.

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The transgender support group Gender Rebels Cork said that Facebook was slow to deal with the matter when it was reported.

“Facebook repeatedly refused to deal with the page and the resulting death threats — even after multiple avoidable hours on behalf of the gardaí attempting to get the page taken down,” a group spokesperson said.

They have a seemingly comprehensive reporting system. But if they can’t even take down death threats or some of the most blatant transphobia imaginable, why do they have it?

“Hate crime laws are one thing, but the problem needs to be cut off at the root, and the Government need to force Facebook to moderate violent extremism.” 

Meta, which owns Facebook, has been asked to comment.

Rise in violence

A report published last month showed that 2022 was the most violent year for LGBTQ+ people in Europe for a decade.

ILGA-Europe, the leading LGBTQ+ equality organisation in Europe, said that pervasive hate speech across the continent had led to deadly consequences, with terror attacks outside LGBTQ+ bars in Norway and Slovakia, with a rise in transphobic speech identified in Ireland, Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK.

The report also mentioned "hostile media reporting" on the topic and identified a dozen far-right groups in Ireland targeting people due to their sexual orientation and gender identity.

Garda figures show that of the 448 hate crimes and hate-related incidents in 2021, some 15% were motivated by the victim's sexual orientation.

Gender Rebels Cork, which also organised a vigil at Daunt Square on February 19 for Brianna Ghey, the 16-year-old transgender girl who was killed in England eight days earlier, also said the memorial they erected in her memory on the square has been torn down twice.