Clare TD was among targets of Harris trolling

Sinn Fein deputy was subjected to scathing Twitter attack

IT HAS emerged that an anonymous Twitter account, which led to the termination of the contract of Sunday Independent columnist Eoghan Harris, targeted Clare Sinn Féin TD Violet Ann Wynne.
Last week, editor Alan English took the decision to terminate Mr Harris’s contract after he admitted to being involved in the Barbara J Pym account, which has since been permanently suspended for violating Twitter’s rules on platform manipulation and spam.
The account tweeted Deputy Wynne last March after the Tánaiste’s erroneous assertion that there were no protestants in Sinn Féin.
While Leo Varadkar later apologised to Deputy Wynne, a member of the Church of Ireland, the Barbara J Pym account launched a scathing attack.
The tweet, sent to the Tánaiste, Sinn Féin and Deputy Wynne said: “She’s only acceptable as a token Protestant as long as she toes the SFIRA line and justifies the murder and ethnic cleansing of Protestants north and south 1921-1998. In Norway they’d call her a Quisling because she collaborates with Nazis.”
Deputy Wynne told The Champion she was “quite shocked” and only saw the tweet for the first time when this newspaper drew her attention to it.
“I’ve had similar things said to me on social media,” she said, “but nothing as strong as this. It underlines the fact that words can be very powerful and people need to pick and choose them wisely.
“It also highlights the fact that platforms like Twitter are largely unregulated when you compare them to the print and broadcast media.
“In the social media world, people feel they won’t be reprimanded and that’s an area that needs to be looked at. Colleagues of mine have been targeted in an extreme way on social media, Mary Lou McDonald has been the subject of misogynistic comments.”
The Kilrush-based representative also expressed surprise that Mr Harris would feel the need to be involved in a fake account.
“Eoghan Harris has had a platform in a Sunday newspaper for decades,” she noted.
“You would think he wouldn’t feel the need to go to these measures to target people, including journalists like Aoife Moore from the Examiner, anonymously. When you have a position as a journalist or as a politician, you have to use it responsibly.
“You have to be careful with language. Aoife Moore was only new to her role when this started and Eoghan Harris is a powerful man.”
When asked about criticism of the behaviour of some Sinn Féin members on platforms like Twitter and Facebook, Deputy Wynne acknowledged that change was being made.
“We have social media guidelines and have been reminded that we need to be mindful of them and to be sensitive in what we say,” she said.
“The party is very active on that. If you are politically active, you have huge responsibilities to make sure you’re not hurting others and you need to take pride in your role.”
Speaking on RTÉ’s Drivetime programme last week, Eoghan Harris said he was one of the founders of the Barbara J Pym account, but that in recent times he had become more of a background figure.
He said five to six people in total were involved, and that he had been motivated by the opportunity because he could not address issues relating to Northern Ireland every week as a political columnist.