Death threats and sexual harassment: Lifting the lid on the online abuse of Irish politicians

Irish politicians currently face unprecedented levels of abuse on social media. Now research has discovered that almost half of all the hostility is coming from a tiny number of accounts. But in a new age of political rancour, a small cohort can still make an extremely loud noise

Roughly 2 per cent of tweets relating to Irish politics could be classified as highly toxic, which is defined by Perspective AI as ‘rude, disrespectful or unreasonable comments that are likely to make people leave a discussion’. Picture: Getty