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Although now invisible to others, the Facebook page, simply called Sinn Féin, is a heavily visited site. Many of its 16,000 members engage frequently, often with messages of support for the party.
Yet some often engage differently, launching bitter tirades against Sinn Féin’s political opponents, including frequently expressed wishes that others suffer harm.
Established seven years ago, it operated as a private group until last summer, when the Sunday Business Post requested information from Sinn Féin, not the group itself, about its ten rules of conduct.
Rule four from the Facebook page said: “If you see something in mainstream media that you want to share, it would be best to copy and paste the article into the group. If you share links, you get paid for every click on those links. “
The rule was removed after Sinn Féin’s press office was asked to comment on whether it supported such views.
After this, it seemed that the Facebook group had simply disappeared. It wasn’t showing up in searches, and the links that previously led Facebook users to the group only showed a blank page saying there were no members.
Closed groups are common on Facebook, allowing current members to view group content and see who else is in the group, and people are invited to join. However, its existence can be found online.
Secret groups, and this is how Facebook describes them, are hidden from searches and therefore invisible. They also require an invitation to join.
Some people who were once in the group found themselves out in the cold and couldn’t find it when they went looking. They assumed that Facebook had removed it because, as the sources said, it could have content there that could cause problems for the party.
When contacted by The Irish Times in early December, a Facebook spokeswoman said: “We have investigated this group and can confirm that it is still active as a secret group. Facebook has not removed the group. “
Within the group of 16,000 people, there are multiple publications on politics and political and partisan affairs. Some of it is routine, most of them support high-level Sinn Féin figures and party politics; but much of it includes often scathing and abusive language.
Under a photo of Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and Michael Collins, the commenters wrote that Collins would have either “slit Leo the liar’s neck, sure” or “I know what Michael Collins would have done with a snitch like Leo the leak, a round and a round well spent. “
Another said Collins “would shoot Leo in the face, like most Irish people would love to.” Other posts about Varadkar said that he should be “put in the swamp” or that he “badly needs a shovel belt”, “the bigger and heavier the better”.
Posts about Taoiseach Micheál Martin were also greeted with mocking messages with a member claiming that he was nothing more than a two-faced liar.
Members of the group included Sligo-Leitrim TD Martin Kenny and Clare TD Violet Anne Wynne, as well as several Sinn Féin councilors. They left the group this week after The Irish Times contacted Sinn Féin with a series of questions about what was happening in the group and about the TD’s presence there.
A Sinn Féin spokesperson said: “Sinn Féin does not operate any Facebook groups and Sinn Féin is not responsible for any of the content in this group or any other Facebook group.
“There is a responsibility for social media platforms like Facebook to address this type of content, which is clearly unacceptable and violates their own standards. We have contacted Facebook to make it clear that Sinn Féin has nothing to do with this group and that they should remove it. “
Meanwhile, TDs who have left the group so far have not responded to inquiries.
Administrators
The group has existed since 2013. The administrators are three party activists who have been featured on Sinn Féin’s local Facebook pages.
One of the activists campaigned heavily in Cavan during the February general election for Pauline Tully TD. Two of them were also photographed in a group with party leader Mary Lou McDonald almost exactly a year ago at an event to commemorate the life of IRA volunteer Martin Savage.
The Facebook group declared itself Sinn Féin’s unofficial online fan group. One of the group’s rules says that “trolls, accomplices and spammers will open the door.” Critics of the party, be they journalists or members of other political parties, are often referred to as “accomplices” of the government online.
Another group rule asks members to “refrain from dropping f-bombs or c-bombs in their comments.” Despite this, many of the comments contained references to the opposition politicians being a “c ***”, “p ****”, “parasite”, “asshole”, “bellend” or “evil bitch “. re”.
The seventh rule was for “no incitement to hatred or intimidation.”
“Make sure everyone feels safe. Harassment of any kind is not allowed and degrading comments on topics such as race, religion, culture, sexual orientation, gender or identity will not be tolerated. “Again, despite this, there are references to the Tánaiste couple and he comments that he should” leave our country now… with your boyfriend ”.
Earlier this year, Fianna Fáil Senator Malcolm Byrne wrote to TD Eoin Ó Broin from Dublin’s Midwest about the same group.
Byrne was concerned about posts that repeatedly referred to former Labor Director Joan Burton as a “c ** t” and an “ugly bitch” and a post that said they would like to “kick her off a plane without a life jacket.”
In a post about Higher Education Minister Simon Harris, one person asked “someone with a crown” to “please go sneeze and do the country a favor.”
In another basic rule, group members are asked to be “nice and courteous.”
“Let us treat everyone with respect. Healthy discussions are natural, but it takes kindness. “
Social media
Sinn Féin undoubtedly have a great advantage over other parties. It uses social media more creatively, and its members and followers are heavily engaged with the content, the key to making these messages “viral” in the crowded online world.
However, your online domain creates its own problems. Recent controversies over the Twitter and Facebook posts written by Brian Stanley and Martin Browne have brought the issue to a wider audience, not always favorably.
While academics found that Sinn Féin had roughly 10 times more engagement on Facebook during this year’s general election campaign than other political parties, historic messages sent by some party TDs have provided leaders with headaches. .
The party’s online dominance during the elections helped attract new, younger voters. However, many of them, driven by issues like the housing crisis, are enraged when told not to speak out of place with the party line, in the name of “democratic socialism.”
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