'Mapping Far-Right Activity Online in Northern Ireland Project Report'
Join us for the launch of the ‘Mapping Far-Right Activity Online in Northern Ireland Project Report: Case studies on the role of social media in anti-immigration protests and racist incidents’ research report, which addresses questions as to the extent to which last summer’s disorder, subsequent protests and racist incidents have been fuelled by orchestration, disinformation and misinformation online by far-right actors and tropes.
A range of case studies will be presented in the report, including social media posts related to anti-immigration and Islamophobic protests and disorder; protests activity at schools; rhetoric and responses to racist incidents; and anti-migrant posters and banners.
Friday 2nd May
11:00am – 12:30pm
UNISON NI, Galway House, 165 York St, Belfast BT15 1GD
In person event only | RSVP required
Background and Methodology
Following the disorder and escalation of racist attacks in August 2024 the Equality Coalition Co-Convener organisations CAJ and UNISON engaged local tech experts the Rabble Cooperative to initiate an initial snapshot study on the online activity linked to the violent far-right protests occurring in Belfast from Saturday 3rd August 2024 and an earlier series of incidents of racist intimidation from housing in an area of south Belfast in late 2023. This work was supported by the UNISON Campaign Fund and presented in a number of forums.
Building on this and further to funding support from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, AB Charitable Trust and the Civic Power Fund Emergency Action Fund, CAJ commissioned Rabble Collective to undertake a second stage of the project to probe the patterns uncovered and to produce a detailed analysis of online far-right activity in the Northern Ireland context and a public facing report.
The initial study focused primarily on ‘X’ (twitter), Facebook and Instagram. The second phase also encompassed analysis of content on Reddit, TikTok and Telegram. The research encompasses both statistics on reach of posts and content-based analysis of material.
Chair: Patricia McKeown, UNISON Regional Secretary and Equality Coalition Co-Convener
Introduction: Daniel Holder, CAJ Director & Shannon Doherty – CAJ and North West Migrants Forum
Report Presentation: Dessie Donnelly, Rabble Cooperative Co-founder
Q&A
Lunch will be served at approximately 12:30pm
