DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL will tonight hold a special council meeting on the “urgent and growing issue” of misinformation around immigration and public safety.

The meeting was requested by Independent Barry Heneghan, who was elected at the recent Local Elections.

Speaking to The Journal, Heneghan noted that he was “elected through the power of social media”.

“We’re in the age of social media, it’s probably the place where most people get their information, whether we like it or not,” said Heneghan.

“But the spread of misinformation from elected officials really needs to be tackled,” he added, “you can’t go around as an elected official and say things you haven’t fact checked.”

The meeting that he has called for this evening is on misinformation and public safety, which Heneghan said “goes hand in hand”.

Among the items to be discussed is the “impact of recent false claims caused unnecessary fear and confusion despite clarification from An Garda Síochána”.

Heneghan pointed to an incident on 4 October in Finglas as a prominent example of this.

On 4 October, Gardaí responded to reports of “an alleged incident” from members of the public in Finglas but no crime had been committed. 

The young man, described as having limited proficiency in English, had been asking for help to make contact with a family member.

However, gardaí said the man’s requests for help had been misinterpreted and that gardaí took the man with them to provide assistance. 

False reports about the incident spread on social media and on messaging apps like WhatsApp, and people also misinterpreted the situation when the man left with gardaí. 

Heneghan also accused the Government of “creating a vacuum which allowed harmful misinformation to spread”.

“The government, without clear communication with communities – which they could have provided on social media – created a vacuum which allowed harmful misinformation to spread, divide and incite violence in our communities,” said Heneghan.

“If you’re not straight up in telling people what’s actually happening, it gives an option for people to say, ‘well, do you know what I heard is happening here,’ and then people get annoyed.”

Heneghan told The Journal that all councillors from the Social Democrats, Sinn Féin, People Before Profit and the Independent Group agreed to his request for the special meeting on misinformation.

When asked if he expects push back to the meeting from some quarters, Heneghan replied: “I say ‘bring it on’ because at the end of the day, truth will persevere and people will realise that you can lie all you want, but you’re going to get caught out.

“I feel like some people are just trying everything they can to get their name out there.”

Heneghan added that in his short time as a councillor, he has “already seen people twisting things and using fear to spread their own political agenda”.

He said there “needs to be some sort of disciplinary action for this” and called for elected representatives to be required to make a formal apology if they are found to have spread misinformation.

“If someone is spreading misinformation, they need to come out and apologise with a formal statement saying, ‘what I said was not true, I didn’t do my research, I’m sorry’.

“It takes years to build up a reputation, but it takes seconds to destroy it and if you’re found out for spreading misinformation and you have to publicly apologise, I think that little slap on the wrist will prevent you from spreading misinformation in the future,” said Heneghan.

He added: “It’s like bringing it back to the school days, when if you do something wrong, you say sorry and apologise but some people need to be trained.”