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The Herald Scotland
23-06-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Ballymena violence fuelled by mainstreaming of far-right
As we saw with the Southport riots last August, there has been much discussion about the role of social media in fuelling racist violence. Loyalist groups like the Ballymena Reaction Group and Protestant Coalition used their public Facebook pages to share details of the protests and call for the removal of "Roma gang masters" from their communities. Masked rioters went as far as to livestream themselves burning down a house in Ballymena, with one offering to smash a window in return for 'gifts' from viewers. Numerous false claims about immigrants were shared within these online groups. It was perhaps no surprise that Sinn Fein representative Philip McGuigan called on big tech companies like Meta to remove such content. There are other similarities to previous incidents of violent disorder too. A recurring theme in my research has been how politicians often make things worse through their commentary, both on and offline. From the 2012 flag protests in Northern Ireland to the 2024 Southport riots, some politicians have inflamed tensions rather than condemning violence without reservation. Last week there were calls for Communities Minister Gordon Lyons to resign from the Northern Ireland Executive after he revealed on Facebook that families forced out of their homes in Ballymena had been moved to Larne Leisure Centre. Critics accused Mr Lyons of inflaming tensions by revealing their location, which was later targeted by the rioters. Amnesty International's Patrick Corrigan was among those to blame politicians for irresponsibly conflating immigration with crime and social issues that affected all communities. There will no doubt be more calls for tighter regulation of online platforms to prevent a repeat of this racist violence. While platforms can clearly do more to tackle online disinformation and hate, this doesn't address its root causes. Elected representatives need to acknowledge their role in producing a toxic discourse in relation to immigration. Some unionist politicians defended the anti-immigrant protests that sparked the violence. Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister suggested the demonstrations had focused attention on "long-standing frustrations" over "unchecked immigration" into Ballymena. This illustrates what Aurelien Mondon and Aaron Winter refer to as the mainstreaming of the far-right. This is when large sections of the media and political class present racist views as the "legitimate concerns" of local communities, irrespective of the facts. Our politicians need to do much more than say "never again". There is an urgent need for an anti-racist, fact-based narrative on issues like immigration if we are to avoid a repeat of the scenes in Ballymena and Larne. Dr Paul Reilly is Senior Lecturer in Communications, Media & Democracy at the University of Glasgow Agenda is a column for outside contributors. Contact: agenda@
BreakingNews.ie
13-06-2025
- Politics
- BreakingNews.ie
Facebook being used to coordinate racist attacks in Ballymena, research finds
The violence in Ballymena is being supported by a Facebook group promoting racist attacks, according to a group that monitors far-right activitiy. Hope and Courage Collective (H&CC) research "has uncovered evidence that Facebook is being used to coordinate racist pogroms in Ballymena. A Facebook page under the name 'Ballymena Reaction Group' is actively soliciting information to orchestrate attacks. The page with almost 5,000 followers, was set up in November 2023 but was dormant since August 2024 until Monday this week". Advertisement The research, conducted over the last 72 hours, uncovered scores of comments and posts on the platform supporting racist violence and the firebombing of homes in Ballymena. The group said this reflects Meta's "long history of failure to combat hate and violence on the platform it owns". Mark Malone, research lead with H&CC, said: "What is new and deeply frightening is that Meta is allowing a Facebook page 'Ballymena Reaction Group' to solicit information about the ethnicity of people living at specific house numbers on named streets so as to assist in orchestrating attacks." Several posts by the 'Ballymena Reaction Group' page, ask people to leave a comment to identify the ethnicity of people living in specific houses source source source. Facebook users are commenting underneath specifying if they, or people they know are local and their homes should not be targeted. Advertisement Other posts have encouraged Facebook users not to attack specific houses, referencing some addresses being mistakenly attacked source and referencing other homes with elderly people fearing they may be attacked. Many replies offered to supply homes with posters or union jack flags to identify homes not to be attacked. A further post stated: "To all the young soldiers out there protecting your towns, let's not turn this into indiscriminate attacks, that's not gonna help our cause. We need rid of the Roma gangs and have to be specific to that. Any information we have on them will be passed on to your community leaders and they can decide the best way to remove this scum from our streets." Mr Malone added: "By any definition this is pogrom planning and Meta is facilitating this through its lack of action. This is an absolute failure of Meta to protect people from violence, openly orchestrated on their platform. H&CC came across this page by simply searching for 'Ballymena' on Facebook. Yet after three nights of widespread violence, massive media coverage and billions of pounds at its disposal, Meta still hasn't acted to stop violence being organised on Facebook." He concluded: "Bosses at Meta need to immediately step in to stop the flow of hate to stem violence. We need political leadership from the First and Deputy First Ministers to hold them to account in relation to the volatile situation in Ballymena and beyond. Meta bosses can no longer be allowed to act with impunity and complete disregard for community safety and the minorities communities." Advertisement Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland Jon Boutcher said a young girl who was the victim of an alleged sexual assault in Ballymena at the weekend, an incident that triggered protests that descended into violence in the Co Antrim town, had been 'further traumatised' by the rioting since Monday. Forty-one officers have been injured in the unrest, which had resulted in 15 arrests by Thursday evening. Mr Boutcher, who met the girl's family earlier that day, spoke to the media in Belfast after a meeting with his oversight body, the Northern Ireland Policing Board. 'Stop this violence,' he said. 'We will come after you. We will arrest you. We will prosecute you successfully. It is not in any way a way for a civilised society to behave and it must stop now.' He said the family was 'mortified' by the disorder. Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O'Neill has called the violence "pure racism, there's no other way to dress it up".
