Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Was that family worth the counter-speech Ms White is advocating? Was the counter-speech online and in the media worth it? There has been a lot of solidarity in the media and among the public, but should they have had to go through that experience and rely on the kind of counter-speech Ms White refers to? I would argue that Twitter should have stopped it before we had to have this conversation about counter-speech. I accept that in other, broader debates counter-speech may be important, but not when a family is at the centre of the issue. In the context of the issue this family faced, Ms White's approach of resorting to counter-speech misses the point. They were in the middle of this. They would be pretty concerned that Ms White is advocating counter-speech as a way to deflect from their experience. As far as I am concerned, Twitter should not have allowed them to become the epicentre of this very difficult experience.