Fianna Fáil presidential election candidate Jim Gavin has hit out at “online abuse and malicious smears” about him and his family on social media in recent days.
Some of the online statements about the former Dublin GAA manager have been “slanderous” and resulted in an “awful week” for Mr Gavin and his family, sources have said.
It is now believed that the claims, which cannot be repeated due to defamation laws, are being spread by a “hard right” agitator with links to another political party who has multiple online accounts.
Meta has taken down some of the posts from Facebook and Instagram following legal letters.
TikTok, X, and Coimisiún na Meán have yet to respond.
In a statement, Mr Gavin said that he felt the need to call out the misinformation.
“Every person in our country knows the real and growing threat posed by online hate and disinformation,” he said.
“It is one of the forces driving the growing division and conflict in many societies. It is the cause of mental health issues amongst our young people due to online bullying and harassment.
“We’ve seen this in recent weeks, where the Ceann Comhairle [Verona Murphy] felt it necessary to convene discussions on confronting abuse and threats towards political figures, and it’s something every parent confronts when trying to ensure that their children are safe online.
“I refuse to accept that the price of participating in public life should involve having to put your family and friends through waves of online abuse and malicious smears. This is not the cost of service — it is a failure of our digital culture.
“I will continue to take whatever action is necessary to confront this appalling feature of social media. We all need to call it out for what it is: totally unacceptable. Social media companies must do far more to protect people from such nasty and destructive behaviour online.”
Sources told the Irish Examiner that it has been an “awful week” for Mr Gavin and his family and that while he is a “measured person”, he is “really worried about the impact on his family and his friends”.
It is being examined whether a “hard right” agitator with links to another political party was behind the original post. It is believed they have “multiple aliases”, and it is “hard to keep up with the spin-off posts”. Additional posts were removed from the internet as recently as Sunday.
“Jim’s feeling on it all is that he is not going to leave it lie.”
He wants to stand up against these social media companies, not just for his family, but he feels that this is bigger than him.”