RTE Prime Time viewers have slammed a debate on how social media could be driving hate towards migrants.
The Thursday night current affairs programme covered how unverified video clips from TikTok have recently gone viral in Ireland which make claims of sexual assaults perpetrated by migrants.
The show also featured a studio debate with Lucky Khambule from the Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland and Junior Minister Neale Richmond on how to tackle the surge of false claims on social media about migrants.
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However, viewers watching the show at home claimed that the panel debate lacked a range of opinions, with some calling it 'unbalanced'.
In the Prime Time report, ISD senior analyst Ciarán O’Connor said he has seen a rising trend of the circulation of accusations about sexual violence by migrants.
Speaking on Prime Time, he said: "Many TikTok videos featured in this report make unverified claims of attacks and sexual assaults against women, children and men perpetrated by migrants. And these videos also show migrants being confronted in public, harassed, or in some cases, assaulted. And some of these videos have been viewed over a million times," he said.
In the studio, Mr Richmond said that people shouldn't be able to post hateful rhetoric on social media without repercussions.
He said: "They shouldn't be able to and that's why we strengthened legislation to bring in real, meaningful change. The online media safety regulation bill was passed just over Christmas. We'll see the online media safety commissioner put in office next week.
"We'll also see the Hate Bill come in before the Dail before the summer. This is giving real powers to the government to intervene here where social media companies are not acting.
"It gives the ability to fine up to €20 million, or 10 per cent of turnover, when we see anonymous accounts posting hate, posting illegal content."
Mr Richmond was questioned by Prime Time presenter Fran McNulty on whether these pieces of proposed legislation could stop online hate.
"I think it could have a massive impact but it can't be done by this alone. It requires the co-operation of the social media companies, it requires a European Union effort, it also requires the resourcing of An Garda Siochana to make sure this can be policed.
"That's why we've consistently increased the budget for An Garda Siochana for ICT technology to really impact this because this is on the rise."
One person writing on Twitter said that despite legislation, it would be impossible to monitor every video that was uploaded online.
A Twitter user wrote: "How exactly does @nealerichmond think social media companies can moderate every video uploaded to the platform you'd have to give the whole country full time jobs just to do it. They have 1000s uploaded per minute in Ireland alone #rtept."
Another slammed the lack of diversity in opinion of those on the panel, writing: "Some debate where you have three people who all have the exact same opinion on the subject matter."
A third called the debate "unbalanced" and "out of touch", writing: "It beggars belief what I witnessed tonight. RTE is so out of touch with the ordinary citizen. There is anger for months now over this crisis which is only going to get worse and ye act like it a few lads online. Incredibly naive. Unbalanced again."
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