Dublin riot instigators ‘exploited’ Irish language to evade online moderators

Instigators of the Dublin riots last week may have used the Irish language to evade social media platform rules that ban the spreading of hatred and illegal content, it has emerged.

Large social media platforms have little if any moderation of content in the Irish language, according to data reported by several of them to the European Commission earlier this year.

“In the case of the riots in Dublin we saw that those spreading hatred, illegal and harmful content ‘exploit’ the lack of Gaelic speaking moderators, as a lot of such content was posted in Gaelic,” an EU official said.

When public disorder broke out in the wake of the stabbing of three children and two adults last week, Irish authorities triggered an alert that pulled in the help of European Union officials to appeal to the major online platforms and remind them they are obliged to remove illegal content under powerful legislation that came into force this year.

Read more: The Irish Times