Online abuse of politicians is a profitable business Senator Eileen Flynn's comments on far-right use of the tricolour have made her a lightning rod for online abuse - because viral hatred is highly profitable
In the space of a few weeks in 2025, Simon Harris required armed gardaí at his family home due to multiple bomb threats, while former taoiseach Leo Varadkar was subjected to a homophobic tirade by a self-styled citizen journalist who filmed the confrontation for social media. A man is due before the courts in July in connection with an alleged assault on Mary Lou McDonald and two canvassers the day before the presidential election last year. The incident was filmed and went viral online. So, last week when a video of Senator Eileen Flynn speaking about racism and nationalist propaganda went viral, a predictable and inevitable online pile on began, with posts attacking Flynn's "patriotism" or perceived
Much of the abuse directed at Ms Flynn came from Irish accounts run by people who benefit from algorithmically amplification (so called blue tick accounts), and content monetisation. Monetisation is now a commonplace feature on social media platforms like X/Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, that allows the company to "share" revenue. The more attention (likes, shares, comments etc) a post gets, the more revenue a user earns. Influencers also often have accounts on three or four platforms and post dozens of times a day, and can also benefit from tips, and paid subscribers so it is difficult to gauge how much they earn, but a single viral post on X can generate over €300 for an influencer, so this can become a quite lucrative activity for not a lot of work. Power
The abuse directed at Ms Flynn did not only come from Irish accounts; international social media influencers whose attention was already on Ireland since the fuel protests latched onto it too. Defiant Ls, an account run by a Macedonian influencer who promotes Maga content shared the video, as did the account LibsofTikTok, with the caption, 'Irish Senator Eileen Flynn says that she is "terrified" to see her nation's flag and thinks it's "disgraceful" to fly it', received more than 250,000 views and over 1,300 comments, mostly abusive. LibsOfTikTok has nearly five million fans and the account is run by Chaya Raichik, a right wing influencer who has previously targeted schools, hospitals and libraries across the United States. Victims of her attention have gone to be inundated with threats of violence.
I have a piece in the Examiner today on how content monetisation is fuelling a new wave of online harassment
Irish influencers with monetised accounts are mimicking the behaviour of people like Chaya Raichik, the owner of LibsOfTikTok, who has turned online abuse & harassment into a business model.
