Starting social media with a blank slate: ‘The algorithm took me from Irish mammies to immigration in 10 minutes’

How much is real-life anger fuelled by what we see online? TikTok, X and YouTube are often blamed for pushing divisive content, so we began new accounts from scratch to see what they would serve us

How long does it take for social media feeds to lead you down a political rabbit hole?

Saoirse Hanley and John Meagher

“House the Irish first”, “close the borders” and “Eire will no longer run by EU puppets” read the placards at the protest outside Simon Harris’s family home on Thursday.

The Taoiseach joins an unfortunate list of politicians to experience confrontation and abuse in and around where they live. The incident came days after graffiti reading “Paul Murphy RIP” was spray-painted near the People Before Profit TD’s home. Last month, Minister Roderic O’Gorman was forced to call gardaí after masked men gathered outside his house, while Minister for Justice Helen McEntee received bomb threats. Also last month, a short video of Leo Varadkar being subjected to homophobic abuse was widely viewed.