news INTRODUCTION

Ministers, TDs, civil servants and community workers on the ground can rejoice over an unexpected win to emerge from current conflict between the Government and Civil Society over community funding issues. Local community campaigners joined forces online and helped to take on one of the biggest web companies, Facebook, forcing it to remove two big racist websites. However, other smaller anti-Traveller sites remain in existence. The people behind one of the sites made no effort at first to hide their identities.

Community activists shut down facebook hate sites - Racist membership was reaching 10,000

Four of those (ringed) responsible for Babies for Bait. By Allen Meagher ommunity activists went online en-masse in May to force Facebook to remove two racist sites targeting the Traveller community that had a combined membership of very close to 10,000 members. The most popular site proposed shooting Travellers on Monday afternoons while another one was set up by four drinking buddies from Killarney, Co. Kerry and suggested that Traveller babies should be used as shark-bait. On May 19th, ‘Babies for Bait’ was shut down at by Facebook four hours after the company “removed” the ‘Hunting’ site, the homepage of which had featured a man with an enormous gun. The ‘Babies for Bait’ page was in existence for ten months. In February, one of the four “admin” people named on the site wrote about Travellers on his friend’s publicly open Facebook page, asking: “Where is an AK47 when you need it?” The friend replied: “I need special with neverending bullets.” This was one of the most serious examples of the

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way the people involved in these sites talk. Meanwhile, the photo section of the ‘Babies for Bait’ site proposed burning Travellers out of caravans. Members of both sites ranged from secondary school pupils to UCD business and law students to a businessman, a hotel and a bar in Kerry. Coincidentally, shortly after two sites were removed, Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern made a speech at a Press Council event when he said people responsible for defamatory and offensive online material can and will be sued. The Garda Racial and Intercultural Office (GRIO) repeated that message to ‘Changing Ireland’ in July. Therefore, those behind ‘Promote the Use of Knacker Babies for Bait’ which had 664 members and ‘Setting Aside Monday Afternoons to Hunt Knackers’ with over 8,000 members may yet be prosecuted. If so, it would be the first time members of the public in Ireland are prosecuted for racist online activity, according to Sergeant Dave McInerney of the GRIO. Until now, people in Ireland joined hate-sites on

Love conquers all things except poverty and toothaches – Mae West

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facebook without fear of repercussions and in the absence of state policing, it was left to community activists and groups representing those targeted to make life uncomfortable for them. One Traveller working under the pseudonym ‘Brian Cowen’ has named and shamed dozens of members of the ‘Babies for Bait’ site, publishing information (gleaned from their own facebook pages) about where they say they work or go to college and sometimes naming their parents or siblings. Those behind the ‘Babies for Bait’ site were naïve or indeed bold enough to set the site up without fear of a reaction and only after one of them was confronted by ‘Changing Ireland’ did they seek to hide or disguise their identities. Two work in the tourism industry in Kerry, one says he works in a large telecommunications company while the fourth appears to have emigrated to Australia. ***** The Irish Traveller Movement described the sites as “particularly vile” and “grossly offensive.” Fitzgibbon Street Garda Station in Dublin is understood to be investigating two formal complaints about the bigger site made by Ron Archibald of Pavee Point, a national Travellers’ organisation and by community worker Emma Maguire. Ben said Facebook need to face up to the racism in a real way and that they have responsibilities while Pavee Point’s director Martin Collins said the sites were “disgusting” and he was glad the issue was being highlighted. The site creator behind the ‘Babies for Bait’ site – a man we’ll call ‘Mike’ – wrote with regret to friends within hours of his site being removed. In his message, he also lamented the removal the same day of two other anti-Traveller sites, including one called ‘I hate gypsies’. Another site is now growing in popularity and community activists may soon lobby Facebook to shut down a site called ‘I fucking hate knackers’. Three of ‘Mike’s buddies joined this site within hours of their own site being pulled, with one Slovakian friend explaining he did so because Travellers were “f…ing animals”. His details and those of the 300-plus other members have been recorded. Two of ‘Mike’s ‘admin’ pals also joined ‘Abolish the Knackers!’ which is in fact a George Orwelldevoted page, though that seems to have been lost on them. Orwell wrote about the offensive term innocently in referring to people who boil horsecarcasses to make glue. ‘Mike’ did not join any new sites publicly, maybe finally sensing that big brother was watching. Meanwhile, the hotel that had linked to his site issued a statement to ‘Changing Ireland’ reporter ROSS RYAN in which it claimed their connection to the ‘Babies for Bait’ site was “not known to us”. A spokeswoman said, “We view such pages as anti-social in the extreme and are shocked that it is possible that a link can be created without our knowledge or consent.” The hotel deleted its facebook page linking to the site that same day. For full coverage, see pages 16-17.