Set up in response to events in “the fall of 2022”, they’ve been seeking “digital canvassers” to back candidates listed on the website.
On 17 November, an account called “Vote for Ireland” posted on X seeking “Digital Canvassers” to help crank up support for anti-immigration candidates running in the election.
A similar notice later popped up on Telegram channels, too.
Being a “keyboard warrior” works, said the X post. Canvassers should engage with frustrated voters politely, and direct them to a website with a list of candidates to vote for, it says.
The website, called Fair Immigration Ireland, features a list of election hopefuls from the National Party, the Irish Freedom Party, and some independents.
It isn’t clear who exactly set it up. Queries to the listed email, sent on Thursday, have gone unanswered.
The Data Protection Commission has rules for “online canvassing” websites. Those apply to “candidates, political parties, and those involved in processing personal data as part of canvassing or campaigning work”.
Among them, are that websites should have easy-to-read privacy policies and be transparent about who runs them.
A spokesperson for the Electoral Commission said online canvassing is a legitimate way of campaigning at election time, and almost all parties do it.
It has published a guide for online campaigning and adverts, which emphasises clear labelling and transparency of political advertising, but it is currently voluntary.
The commission’s powers around paid political advertising haven’t yet been commenced by the government, said the spokesperson.
As they campaign, candidates and political parties can end up handling piles of personal data on electoral registers, email lists, and from door knocks.
The Data Protection Commission has stressed the need to process all this data legally – including online canvassing websites.
The “Fair Immigration Ireland” website doesn’t have a privacy policy statement or a cookie collection pop-up.
Daniel Whooley, a data protection consultant who used to be a Green Party councillor on Fingal County Council, says that violates Article 13 of GDPR, which outlines transparency rules for how websites process visitors’ personal data.
They can argue it is a personal website and so exempt, he says. But it’s unlikely to hold given the focus on electioneering for certain candidates, Whooley said.
“I didn’t need one for my personal website but I needed it for my councillor website,” he said.
The “Fair Immigration Ireland” website also isn’t totally clear on who runs it – although the Data Protection Commission says that is needed.
An associated website mentioned on the page says it is run by “Dublin Institute for Sustainable Communities (DISC)”, which was set up in response to protests against an asylum shelter in East Wall in “the fall of 2022”.
Elsewhere, there’s contradictory information as to whether that institute has been set up formally.
A bio on the “Fair Immigration Ireland” website suggests the institute is a concept planned for the future. But the website’s disclaimer mentions DISC and a team.
There is an email address on the site, recently changed to “clearview2000@tutamail.com”.
Nobody responded to queries sent on Thursday to the initial email address and later forwarded to the new one, though, including those asking who they are, and whether they believe their website is compliant with GDPR rules.
A spokesperson for the Data Protection Commission referred queries to the Electoral Commission and Coimisiún na Meán.
A question sent by email asking whether the online “Digital Canvassers” would be paid also went unanswered.
Ciarán O’Connor, a senior analyst at the Institute For Strategic Dialogue (ISD), said the calls for “digital canvassers” are not something he has seen advertised in Ireland before.
And, “there is no disclosure in who this group is and who is behind it”, said O’Connor.
He had seen online canvassing efforts in England before. Momentum called for volunteer digital canvassers to post on social media comments in their effort to get Jeremy Corbyn elected as prime minister.
O’Connor says if a website is offering advice and telling people who to vote for, it’s crucial that it is transparent about who runs it. “This is so that users can make informed decisions,” he said.
Another vital aspect is ambiguity about the location of the group telling Irish citizens how to vote, said Whooley.
It would be concerning if the website was operated from overseas, he said.
Because “it may represent outside interests attempting to influence Irish politics”.
Posts written on a blog on the “Fair Immigration Ireland” website are bylined with the name “Aleksander Aubel”.
Nobody responded to an email query asking if that was their name and, if not, if they were worried about impersonation.
But on Friday, the Vote for Ireland account posted on X that the website owner wasn’t associated with a political party or non-profit.
“No one is being paid to share information, and there is no request to share links to this account or any website,” it said.
Also, “digital canvasser” is just a “fancy term” for spreading information on Facebook and X, it said.
The “Fair Immigration Ireland” website has a section labelled for “concerned parents”. In it, is a trove of photos of victims of crimes, whose perpetrators they claim had an immigrant background.
Despite it being untrue, anti-immigrant accounts continue to promote the idea that immigrants are predisposed to violence because of their ethnicity or place of birth.
Online, the “Vote for Ireland” account on X implicitly promotes the White genocide conspiracy theory while asking people to visit its website.
In one post, it lists the names of those victims of crimes it has on its website and tells people to fight genocide.
Veronica Maxwell was one of those who the account holder replied to on X.
Maxwell had posted a meme using the anti-immigration candidate infographic that Vote for Ireland had put together, criticising the candidates.
She had wondered who was behind the account, she said.
Maxwell said she looked at the website and thought it was “vile”. “Well written though,” she said.
A spokesperson for Coimisiún na Meán said electoral and information integrity is a key priority this year.
It has been engaging with social media platforms to ensure that they are meeting their obligations under the Digital Service Act (DSA), the spokesperson said.
“There is an obligation on very large online platforms to mitigate risks related to electoral processes, while safeguarding fundamental rights, including the right to freedom of expression,” the spokesperson said.
Under the DSA, platforms have a legal obligation to have rules about acceptable content, and have to enforce those rules in a diligent and proportionate manner, they said.
Users have to be able to report breaches, and appeal findings on those reports, they said. If a user isn’t satisfied, they can complain to Coimisiún na Meán, said the spokesperson.
“Outside what is illegal, platforms are free to set their own rules for what content is permissible,” the spokesperson said.
UPDATE 11.47 6 Jan. 2025: The website and the Vote for Ireland account on X both went offline on Thursday evening, 28 November, shortly after research revealed their owner’s identity, and they were contacted for comment about that.
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