*Cllr Joe Garrihy (FG).
ELECTED members and senior management of Clare County Council are to receive training to become more aware of misinformation.
An increasing amount of councillors admitted to being “fooled” by social media posts with Cllr Michael Shannon (FF) claiming people under thirty five are not listening to the radio or reading newspapers.
In a joint motion, Cllr Joe Garrihy (FG), Cllr Antoinette Baker Bashua (FF), Cllr Mary Howard (FG), Cllr James Ryan (SF), Cllr Ian Lynch (IND), Cllr Rachel Hartigan (FF) and Cllr Conor Ryan (FF) issued a motion to the Council calling for “the organisation of a comprehensive, evidence-based briefing and workshop, delivered by experienced professionals, for elected members, senior management, and relevant Council staff” to increase awareness of misinformation and how to prevent its proliferation.
Director of Services for People and Culture, Corporate Services and Governance, ICT and Digital Services, Ann Reynolds acknowledged “the importance of understanding and responding to the challenges posed by misinformation, disinformation and malinformation, particularly in the context of local governance, public communication and community cohesion”.
She stated, “The training proposed in this Motion aligns with the Council’s commitment to supporting elected members in their public leadership role. It is therefore recommended that this topic be considered for inclusion in the Clare County Council Training and Development Programme for Elected Members, with the potential for a dedicated briefing and workshop delivered by suitably qualified professionals to ensure members receive training in this evolving area”.
Posts from the Council online have been subject to ‘pile-ons’, Cllr Garrihy stated. “We live in a completely changed environment in terms of information. I see this morning that the EU are looking at restricting access for under 13s to social media. An honest, good, open debate is really critical to have in our society and our environment. That confidence in institutions has been eroded over the last forty years and we’re experiencing that at public meetings and at home across the table. Views being expressed from negative place to cause division. Very recently we had a pile-on on a post from Clare County Council that was very distressing, 70% of the comments on that post originated from outside of Ireland and outside Europe”.
Voicing his support, Cllr James Ryan commented, “Anyone who talks to people on a daily basis will know that there is a lot of misinformation on the most basic things”.
Appearing via MS teams. Cllr Lynch said the spread of information designed to cause discontent “is getting concerning at this stage. People are turning to what’s on social media rather than the mainstream media. There’s an awful lot of aggression out there and people are afraid to voice their opinion in case the negativity turns on them”.
Calling for a proactive approach, Cllr Hartigan remarked via Teams, “It’s gotten to a point where we need to be proactive in approaching it. It’s a part of life now especially with the advances in AI. All of us are being fooled now and again by posts on social media. It’s becoming very real and very believable and we’re not finding it all that funny anymore”.
Disinformation and troubles from AI are rising, Cllr Conor Ryan noted. “Having an interest in reading history myself I would have an appreciation for real and accurate sources. It seems the more ridiculous the more ready they are to believe. It’s only becoming more and more common. I was talking with a man yesterday about that picture of Nicky Quaid and Peter Duggan and he was saying ‘I don’t know do I believe anything anymore, that could be AI’”.
Traditional sources are not utilised by the youth, Cllr Shannon claimed. “It’s a never ending issue to try and get the message out. Anyone under 35 doesn’t listen to the radio, doesn’t read The Champion or national papers. They listen to a podcast somewhere far away and their views. We’re blessed in Clare that we have media like The Champion and The Clare Echo that are honest. It’s the young voters who will decide the future”.
Concluding the discussion, Cllr Garrihy commented, “We are the people that we want people to turn to. We want to be able to respond to these things and tackle misinformation. This is only going to steamroll and become more of a challenge as time goes on”.
