Nearly 60% of anti-immigration tweets come from the US

Research from Sky News has found that US accounts are a major driver of anti-immigration sentiment on Irish social media.

The research was conducted by Sky News journalist Sam Doak, examining data from Twitter using the social media monitoring tool Talkwalker.

Hashtags like #IrelandIsFull and #IrelandBelongsToTheIrish have become more prominent on Twitter since 2022, coinciding with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media site.

Musk himself has become combative towards the Irish government in recent times over the Hate Speech Bill and was accused of facilitating violent content during last November’s riots.

Justice Minister Helen McEntee accused Twitter of failing to comply with Garda requests to remove false information relating to the riots, which Musk denies.

The Wicklow town of Newtownmountkennedy has become the latest flashpoint in the debate over immigration in Ireland, but it has now become clear that the social media narrative on immigration is taking shape beyond Irish shores.

Sky News research found that 56.1% of accounts using the Newtownmountkennedy hashtag at the end of April were in the United States, well ahead of the 20.8% of hashtag users living in Ireland, with 9.5 % and 3% of hashtags came from accounts based in the UK and Canada respectively.

Three of the top five tweets using the hashtag came from outside Ireland, according to the data, including far-right English activist Tommy Robinson.

In the month of April, 54.4% of tweets using the hashtag #IrelandIsFull came from the United States, while 57% of tweets using the hashtag #IrelandBelongsToTheIrish came from American Twitter accounts.

Further analysis of the hashtag #IrelandBelongsToTheIrish found that four of the five most engaged tweets on the hashtag came from Irish accounts, but the fifth most engaged tweet on the hashtag came from American far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

Jones, who was successfully sued for $1.5 billion for spreading conspiracy theories about the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting in the United States, dabbled in the hashtag.

Doak, who conducted the research, said: “I think these figures help illustrate the level of influence that users outside Ireland have on online conversations about migration in the country.”

“Importantly, this does not minimize the role of Irish figures, or the internal politics of the country,” he added, pointing to similar research he conducted after the November riots.

American far-right personalities such as Donald Trump advisor Steve Bannon and talk show host Tucker Carlson were actively fueling discussion about immigration during and after the riots, according to a December 2023 report from US technology magazine Wired.

American interference in Irish politics has become a trend over the past decade, with prominent anti-abortion activists traveling to Ireland in a failed attempt to influence the repeal referendum.

During that referendum, Facebook banned referendum-related advertisements from non-Irish advertisers.

A 2019 report from OpenDemocracy found that organizations linked to the religious right in America had pumped more than $50 million dollars into various political movements in Europe between 2009 and 2019, with OpenDemocracy editor Mary Fitzpatrick telling the Irish Examiner in 2019 : “American conservatives are increasingly working with groups across Europe.”

A 2022 report from the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism found that a dozen far-right groups were active in Ireland, with the groups sharing a common belief that they wanted to “harass and incite people to violence based on their identity characteristics, including race, religion. , ethnicity, language, national or social origin, caste, gender, sexual orientation or gender identity.”

The report found that “some far-right groups in Ireland have been influenced by American far-right extremists and are actively involved with other extremist groups in Europe.

Closer to home, the findings of the Sky News report have led to accusations of foreign interference in the Irish political system.

A tweet from the Green Party, related to the Sky News report, said: “Americans are the driving force behind Irish political discourse, with most of the noise on supercharged hashtags coming not just from the next town over, but across the sea.”

“This seems to be a bit of a problem in the local and European elections in June,” the tweet said.

Dublin Central TD Neasa Hourigan said: “We often discuss Russian attempts to undermine the democratic process, but perhaps we are looking in the wrong direction and should put the spotlight on the US.”

In recent weeks, prominent West Dublin politicians, such as former Prime Minister Leo Varadkar and Green Party minister Roderic O’Gorman, have been the target of abuse and intimidation by far-right figures.

In a video circulating on social media in late April, Varadkar was targeted with homophobic slurs as he sat outside a cafe in Dublin, while a number of masked protesters gathered outside O’Gorman’s home holding banners reading “Minister O’Gorman hates children’ and ‘South Dublin’. says no to, closes the borders.”

Labor councilor John Walsh said the demonstration outside O’Gorman’s home was “despicable and toxic activity by a small group of extremists”, saying there was “no excuse to target the home of an elected representative, and further called them “masked cowards who despise democracy. ”

“It is no surprise that cowards who wear masks will not run for office,” he added.

Health Secretary Stephen Donnelly, who has also seen protesters appear outside his home in recent years, said: “The recent wave of far-right hatred and xenophobia we are seeing in Ireland is being fueled from abroad.

“Many decent Irish people are being lied to, misled and ultimately manipulated from abroad,” the Fianna Fáil TD said.