The former General-Secretary of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) Antoinette Cunningham has described the difficulties encountered in getting hateful social media posts removed in Ireland.
Yesterday, a 38-year-old man was jailed for seven months for what a judge called "vile social media attacks" against her on Twitter, now called X.
Ms Cunningham was general secretary of the AGSI when the offences took place, over a two-week period in March 2023
Speaking on RTÉ's Drivetime, she said she encountered a "number of difficulties along the way in trying to deal" with the online abuse.
"Not only the emotional impact it has on you...but the difficulty is, in trying to get the posts removed."
She said she discovered that "no-one in Ireland seems to have the power to remove a social media post".
"The Garda Commissioner doesn't have it, the President, the Taoiseach, or the Tánaiste doesn't have it.
"So who in this country can remove a social media post that is put up there for the world to see, that contains such vile and hateful information - and it seems nobody can," she said.
"The people in the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation - my own colleagues - couldn't get it removed."
Ms Cunningham said the posts were eventually removed only when the author closed the account because of the investigation.
She asked: "How is it that somebody can commit a criminal offence in this country, and still in social media circles that's not regarded as a breach of their rules?"
She said she wrote to Twitter, as it was then known, saying the posts were "hateful, degrading, defaming, wrong, lies" and thereby a violation of the rules.
She said Twitter wrote back telling her it was not a violation of the rules and that it would not remove the posts.
Ms Cunningham said there is a "danger that society will normalise this type of crime".
She warned that "a politician or a public figure in this country will be seriously injured or killed by somebody who goes too far" and it will be "too little too late" for politicians and others who have responsibility to take control and say "this is not acceptable".
"Society cannot tolerate this type of behaviour," she said.
Ms Cunningham said she went through a "difficult" time since the abuse first began, in March 2023.
She said the content "got worse" over the ensuing weeks.
"It got more intrusive, lies, disinformation, messages filled with hate, offensive, and I suppose an attempt to discredit me.
"But what was most difficult was an attempt to discredit and harm my family," she said.
Ms Cunningham said she was left with "no choice" but to report the matter to Garda Headquarters.
