Facebook accounts of four FG candidates moderated in India

A party spokesperson said the practice was fully GDPR compliant

Facebook accounts for four of the party's five candidates — John Mullins, Regina Doherty, Nina Carberry, and Maria Walsh — show moderators in India under their Page Transparency sections.
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Fine Gael says that Indian-based moderators of its European candidates' Facebook pages are carrying out "analytical reports" and are fully compliant with Irish law.

Accounts for four of the party's five candidates — John Mullins, Regina Doherty, Nina Carberry, and Maria Walsh — show moderators in India under their Page Transparency sections.

In 2021, Fine Gael was strongly critical of Sinn Féin because some of its pages were managed abroad. 

At the time, Fine Gael Senator John Cummins had called on Sinn Féin to explain why its social media accounts were being managed by people based in Serbia and Germany.

"Why is it necessary that party leader Deputy Mary Lou McDonald has a Facebook account which is also managed in Germany? 

"Why is the page of Northern leader, Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill overseen by someone in Serbia?” he asked.

The Government subsequently introduced sweeping legislative changes to Ireland's electoral system which says that no one outside of Ireland can take out online political ads unless they prove they are "a natural person and provides evidence that he or she is a national of a Member State (other than the State) and the online political advertisement relates to an election to the European Parliament".

While the Electoral Reform Act of 2022 precludes the purchase of social media ads by those outside the EU, a source familiar with the process said that this would be "extremely difficult" to do given Facebook's own ID and verification processes. 

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They said it is likely that the Indian-based moderators were engaged in background analysis for the party.

A Fine Gael spokesperson said the practice was fully GDPR compliant and “a UK-based agency has been contracted to provide analytical reports on some of our European candidates’ overall social media metrics. 

The company has staff members based outside Britain.

“The contract is fully GDPR compliant.

“The account and ad management are exclusively managed by our digital team based in Ireland.

“This information, like all other parties and candidates, is publicly available on Facebook, is in compliance with the Electoral Acts, the Electoral Commission’s Framework on Political Advertising and will be declared in the party’s election returns to Standards in Public Office Commission.” 

Fianna Fáil MEP Billy Kelleher said that all political parties should adhere to both the rule and spirit of the law.

"Sinn Féin previously ran into trouble over where their pages were being managed from. 

"Electoral law must be fully complied with it. If not, that would be very serious. 

"It's not just the letter, but the spirit of the law must be complied with, too."