Eileen Flynn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to support Senator Sherlock in asking the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, to come to the House because a few of us in this House do not feel safe on social media. Never mind politicians, many ordinary people from minority backgrounds in Ireland do not feel safe on social media, now more than ever. In the past 24 hours, I have reported hate and threats of violence towards me for simply putting up quotes on social media. Facebook does not see that I am being threatened; it is the same with Twitter. It is inappropriate. I was threatened, to be honest. It is not just about me personally, it is about all politicians and ordinary people like black people, brown people, refugees or migrants, that is, ordinary people within our society. We all have freedom of speech and should have freedom of speech but when your speech becomes a threat and becomes hate towards a community or individual, it is no longer freedom of speech. What you are doing is hate speech. I do not need to give a lecture in this House because we are all trying. I credit the politicians on "Upfront" last night on RTÉ for showing their support for migrants and refugees. We want to show that support. I also called last week for the Minister responsible for equality to come into this House to reassure migrants and refugees about their safety in Ireland. Nobody is really safe around social media. We need to look at how we can keep people safe. I would not even say we need tougher laws because we do not need more laws to be able to protect our people, what we need is for Facebook, Twitter and all those apps and social media platforms to be able to act to protect ordinary citizens.