Disinformation is being 'engineered to create anger' in Ireland and it is succeeding, an expert has warned.
It comes after unrest in the Finglas area of Dublin at the weekend due to "unsubstantiated claims" that a foreign national "abducted and sexually assaulted a child".
Gardaí say there was "no such report of any child abduction or any similar activity" following "significant disinformation" on social media from far right groups.
There were a number of public order incidents in the area following the social media posts.
"No incident of attempted child abduction or similar activity has been reported to An Garda Síochána nor has An Garda Síochána any information to substantiate such claims," Gardaí said in a statement on Monday.
Author and disinformation expert David Robert Grimes told The Pat Kenny Show the incident never happened.
"The incident, it wasn't just unsubstantiated, it was fictitious - it never happened," he said.
"It was a post on social media that claimed that two foreign national men - how they identified them [was] not specified - had somehow assaulted a young lady in Finglas.
"This was very much engineered to create anger and indeed it did."
'The usual agitators'
Mr Grimes said such disinformation is nothing new.
"This is not something that is particularly new - we've seen it in Dundalk, we've seen it in Celbridge, we've seen in other parts of Ireland and of course we've seen it in our next nearest neighbour - the UK," he said.
"An Garda Síochána had to come out and put a statement out, pointing out that this was all false.
"Of course, the usual agitators in this country got very much behind it.
"There's also videos circulating on social media which are not dated, don't show anything clearly but are used or presented as somehow being evidence for this.
"The Guards have been very clear that this never happened. They've been categorical on it."
'Confirmation bias'
Mr Grimes said people can find material online to support their narrative.
On one level we have poor media literacy but on another level - and I think a very important one - people have a tendency towards confirmation bias,” he said.
"If you already are against immigrants, you can easily find something online that gives you a fig leaf of legitimacy to pretend that your belief is justified when it is certainly not."
Mr Grimes said people need to think twice about what they see.
"It's very much the Nigel Farage approach in the UK to inflame tensions and then just shrug their shoulders and move away," he said.
"This is, very much, blatantly racist disinformation engineered to engender hatred towards a particular group – and there is no legitimacy to it.
"At this stage, I think we should be a little bit more savvy when we see this kind of material online."
'Check its source'
Mr Grimes said there are "no benefits" to sharing disinformation.
"What I would remind people of is if you see something inflammatory, particularly online, check its source, check its veracity, and certainly never share it unless you have absolutely confirmed through reputable outlets that it is true," he said.
"The problem is this stuff vectors out far faster than it can be fact-checked and we all have some power to mitigate that".
"Legally it's a bit of a grey area because we are still trying to get legislation in place that might do something about this," he said.
"A lot of these social media companies are internationally based, even if they have Irish offices, [so] it becomes very, very hard to enforce and it becomes very hard, even an individual level, trying to find the individuals who perpetuate this.
“It's hard to get it down."
Mr Grimes added that there needs to be a "serious societal conversation about how we deal with this in future and also why we fall for it".
An Garda Síochána is urging anyone with information relating to any crime to immediately report it.
