A member of the Labour Party and a schoolteacher, she has drawn both the liar and the ire as a result of her stance on the refugee issue. Her transgression of reactionary mores was that she “refuted the far right.”
There has not been much over the past fifty years that I have agreed with the Labour Party on. But in circumstances where a democratically endorsed mayor acts to defend vulnerable people from hate ideology, I can identify with that every bit as much as I did with the H Block blanket protest.
Many of the slurs and smears against Michelle Hall came from a body known as Termonfeckin Community Standing Together Group. Its members’ fury, faux or real, was sparked by several men having taken up residency in the Triple House Restaurant as they sought international protection. The Irish Times reported that the type of language employed by members of the Termonfeckin Klan included terms that were sexist, misogynistic, racist and xenophobic. Mayor Hall, a robust enough character whom I have observed first hand confront the far right, nevertheless felt so upset by the bile contained in one post that she took a day off work. Then:
Perhaps of more concern than the smears are the threats of violence seemingly being directed the way of the refugees, whom the racists have labelled unvetted fakeugees. Mayor Hall explained:
Labour's General Secretary complained to Facebook on the eminently plausible grounds that free speech was not a licence to bully. Bullying suppresses free speech and is not an exercising of the right to such speech. Remarkably the company responded with a flat earth defence:
Class A tosh. If Facebook can find an image such as the below in breach of its ethics and issue a ban as a result, yet does not have its nose put out of joint by the bile hurled at Michelle Hall, it is an odds on guarantee that the Facebook community standards team would return emptyhanded from an ethics competition.
There has not been much over the past fifty years that I have agreed with the Labour Party on. But in circumstances where a democratically endorsed mayor acts to defend vulnerable people from hate ideology, I can identify with that every bit as much as I did with the H Block blanket protest.
Many of the slurs and smears against Michelle Hall came from a body known as Termonfeckin Community Standing Together Group. Its members’ fury, faux or real, was sparked by several men having taken up residency in the Triple House Restaurant as they sought international protection. The Irish Times reported that the type of language employed by members of the Termonfeckin Klan included terms that were sexist, misogynistic, racist and xenophobic. Mayor Hall, a robust enough character whom I have observed first hand confront the far right, nevertheless felt so upset by the bile contained in one post that she took a day off work. Then:
The day after that when I went into work I found it hard not to cry when somebody looked at me. I actually was so upset by it because it’s just so vile.
Perhaps of more concern than the smears are the threats of violence seemingly being directed the way of the refugees, whom the racists have labelled unvetted fakeugees. Mayor Hall explained:
Many people have contacted me to say the group is still posting material about me and what they are saying is really awful. They have crossed the line. Also, people were afraid that the actual asylum seekers would get hurt because they were inciting violence.
This is a community group in which members are sharing their concerns about local issues. We don’t allow bullying or harassment on Facebook and will remove it when it is reported to us. We have reviewed the group and determined that the content does not violate our policies … We don’t allow statements advocating violence, attacks through derogatory terms related to sexual activity or hate speech … Our harassment policy applies to both public and private individuals because we want to prevent unwanted or malicious contact on the platform …
Class A tosh. If Facebook can find an image such as the below in breach of its ethics and issue a ban as a result, yet does not have its nose put out of joint by the bile hurled at Michelle Hall, it is an odds on guarantee that the Facebook community standards team would return emptyhanded from an ethics competition.
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| Too unethical for Facebook |
Labour leader Ivana Bacik angered by the nonsense from Meta on behalf of Facebook, alleged that:
It’s a threat to our democracy and especially intimidating to women politicians. Any person reading the content reported by the Labour Party can see it is abusive, insidious and intended to have a chilling effect on a democratically elected representative, yet Facebook said it did not breach their community standards.
it takes a special kind of cruelty to see people who have lost everything, and are fleeing for their lives from war, torture and state murder, and think "Hmm, how can we make life even worse for them?"
I feel exactly the same way about people escaping, say, Ukraine or Syria as I would about taking in residents from Cork were a serious weather incident to occur there making their county uninhabitable. Nationality should not matter, humanity should. Yes, sure, let society tackle the problem of immigration and refugees - by help not hate.
⏩ Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.
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