OM DENNE EPISODE
Dessie Donnelly is a member of the Rabble Cooperative, Ireland's first technology cooperative which supports progressive organisations and social movements to realise the power of technology in strategies for social change. The Rabble Co-operative was commissioned by the Equality Commission in Northern Ireland to monitor online activity linked to violent far-right protests held in Belfast in August 2024. Their report found that both violent disorder and racist attacks were being fuelled by disinformation and misinformation online orchestrated by far-right actors outside the jurisdiction. In this episode, Dessie discusses how racist and anti-immigrant online messaging can inflame offline events on the ground that primarily target migrant and minority ethnic communities. He proposes public policy responses to racist violence and intimidation and debates the role of education in sustainably challenging the root causes of online and offline racism.
