The violent events of Tuesday and Wednesday night in Citywest, Dublin, were not without precedent. Riots in Dublin in November 2023, violence in Ballymena earlier this year; the numerous accommodation centres linked to International Protection services that have been targeted with arson since 2018: all illustrate how hate and violence linked to anti-migrant sentiments have become normalised on this island in a few short years.
The vast majority of people protesting against the housing of asylum seekers in their locality do so peacefully. But too often, protests and broader scepticism – and even anger – against migration have been exploited by extremists willing to resort to violence. There is now a depressingly familiar pattern to how this plays out – and at the centre of it all are online social media platforms.
When news emerged of an alleged sexual assault against a 10-year-old girl in Saggart on Monday, posts, videos and calls-to-action, tying the incident to migration, immediately appeared online. One popular video, posted on numerous platforms, featured a person saying “a child’s been attacked. This was entirely preventable, our politicians created this”.
On X, users were quick to reply. “We need to go to war over this,” said one. Another wrote, “there’s only one way it ends”, accompanied by a fire emoji. On Facebook, one user replied with a meme, still live at the time of writing with over 120 likes, showing people being hung from a gallows. The intent was clear.
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Peaceful protests were held at Citywest on Monday night. At the same time, a poster announcing a protest for Tuesday was published and shared widely on social media. This poster was created by Sinne na Daoine, an anti-immigrant vigilante group active since last year, and it was shared both within the community and beyond.
The far-right National Party encouraged people to demonstrate outside the “plantation centre”. “Plantation” in this context is best understood as an Irish version of the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, used to depict asylum seekers as an invading, enemy force.
More than 1,000 people attended the protest on Tuesday evening, and several hundred turned up on Wednesday. Again, the vast majority did so peacefully. However, this was overshadowed by others who were intent on violence and likely influenced by the same anti-immigrant invective that floods our feeds on social media everyday.
“This is Ireland, this is our country, get them out, get them f***ing out,” roared one woman. Amid the growing numbers, as tensions flared, gardaí came under sustained fire from glass bottles, fireworks and bricks obtained from a nearby housing estate. Attempts were made to charge through the Public Order Unit, and a Garda van was set on fire.
“This was obviously not a peaceful protest ... [it was] intent on violence against gardaí,” said Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly. After two nights of violence, 30 people have now been arrested.
Failures in safeguards around features like livestreaming and monetisation urgently need to be addressed
Anti-immigrant hate, promoted in a long-running campaign over recent years by far-right groups across this country, set the tone for the evening. That included dog whistles and more explicit expressions of hatred and violence online, some referring to asylum seekers in Citywest as “barbarians”.
This week’s violence has raised serious questions for some of the main social media platforms. Livestream content depicting violence outside Citywest was broadcast on YouTube, TikTok and Twitch, with streamers rewarded by viewer donations, as they captured protesters shouting racist expletives towards Citywest.
In one eight-minute segment of an hour-long livestream I watched on YouTube that night, the user broadcast the burning of the Garda van, referred to migrants in horrific terms and proclaimed they were there to show people “the real truth”. During the video, they received the equivalent of €56 in donations from viewers around the world. The notion that violence can be monetised on social media illustrates a glaring failure of platforms to adequately enforce their own community guidelines around violence.
Individuals from the UK and Canada travelled to Ireland specifically to attend and create content from the protest. Other international agitators followed events online. Some used events in Citywest to place Ireland into a broader culture war that frames immigration as an existential threat to white people; ideologies such as virulent ethno-nationalism are proposed as the only adequate response.
On this occasion, gardaí appeared well prepared and able to disrupt and overwhelm those engaging in violence across multiple nights. They also correctly pointed towards online platforms playing a significant role in orchestrating the violence that unfolded in Citywest.
[ Garda Commissioner warns against repeated violence near CitywestOpens in new window ]
In recent years we have witnessed the mainstreaming of anti-migrant hate and extremism in this country. That has been facilitated, in part, by platforms failing to enforce their own community guidelines. Amid the anger and outrage that follows an alleged sexual assault, it is now a recurring pattern that online platforms will play host to attempts to publish and promote incitement towards hatred and violence.
After the 2023 riots, Ballymena and even the Southport riots in the UK, Citywest is now the latest example of how online platforms are failing to enforce their policies in response to fast-moving, volatile situations.
Similarly, as a major policing operation to protect residents at the centre is set to remain in place in coming days amid fears the violent scenes may be repeated, failures in broader safeguards around features like livestreaming and monetisation urgently need to be addressed.
Ciarán O’Connor is a researcher and journalist who focuses on extremism and technology
