From the Galway Bay FM newsroom:
A Galway city councillor is highlighted in new research for receiving the most amount of abuse in response to comments she posted online.
A new study looking at the level of abuse politicians endure on Twitter finds that politicians were the target of 38,000 threats, with the majority of abusive comments targeted at politicians from Fianna Fail and Fine Gael.
The research by Dr Ian Richardson looked at more than 2.6 million tweets posted between September 2020 and September of last year, which mentioned 851 politicians.
Abusive comments about politicians increased significantly around political controversies, including the row over the Mother and Baby Homes report, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar's leaking of a confidential GP contract and the debate over pay for student nurses.
The study found that there was no gender divide in the amount of abuse aimed at TDs but there was a significantly higher level of abusive messages focused at female councillors and senators than at their male counterparts.
Galway City Fine Gael Councillor Clodagh Higgins and Dublin Green Party Councillor Hazel Chu were highlighted for receiving the most amount of abuse in response to comments they posted online.
Female councillors get eight times more abuse than their male counterparts and female senators are sent three times as many abusive tweets as men.
