Press Release: ‘Ballymena Riots were ‘springboard’ in establishing stronger anti-immigrant presence in NI communities’ New Report Warns
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The ‘Inciting a Pogrom? Social Media and the Racist Disorder in Ballymena and Beyond during Summer 2025’ report finds:
- Social media has shifted from amplifying anti-migrant narratives into a tool for organising and communicating local community activism
- The Ballymena riots acted as a springboard for a more confident, visible anti-immigrant presence in Northern Ireland communities
- Platforms, particularly Facebook, are being used to coordinate protests, spread disinformation, and sustain community-level intimidation
A report launched today (Monday 6 October), authored by the Rabble Cooperative and commissioned by the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) with support from the Equality Coalition, has revealed a dangerous shift in how social media is being used to drive racist mobilisation in Northern Ireland.
Cross-analysing against the earlier Mapping Far Right Activity Online in NI Project Report, which showed social media being used primarily to amplify racist rhetoric from international actors, this new report concludes that its role has now shifted. Social media is increasingly being used as an organising and communication tool for local-level racist activity, with a growing number of identifiable groups and individuals coordinating violence and intimidation.
According to the research, the Ballymena protests and riots of summer 2025 have provided a springboard for a stronger, more confident and visible anti-immigrant presence in local communities. This presence is largely being coordinated and sustained through Facebook, where misinformation, racist tropes, and calls to action are circulated under the guise of local community discussion.
The report documents how this local organising has gone beyond online rhetoric to target families and homes, celebrate expulsions, and spread dangerous myths portraying entire migrant communities as threats. It has also been used to identify properties, promote sympathy for violence against migrants and police, coordinate the targeting of accommodation and businesses across the UK, and even to share vigilante patrol footage that glorifies harassment, assault and intimidation.
Dessie Donnelly, researcher and author of the report, said:
“The Ballymena riots highlighted a shift in the use of social media from primarily an amplification platform to an organising tool. Intolerance, intimidation, harassment and violence are now being entrenched through local organising, with social media providing the infrastructure to sustain these campaigns. We are witnessing the emergence of a more assertive and visible anti-immigrant movement that is purporting to represent communities through their social media outlets. This cycle of online coordinating, spreading disinformation and offline intimidation is intended to hard-wire segregation and division in our communities.”
Patricia McKeown, Co-convener of the Equality Coalition and UNISON Regional Secretary, said:
“Trade unions have a vital role to play in confronting this rising tide of racist intimidation. We must mobilise our members and see meaningful engagement with employers to challenge the lies and disinformation being used to divide communities. Racist violence is not only an attack on migrants, but a tactic to fracture working-class solidarity. The labour movement has always been strongest when it stands united and today that means standing shoulder to shoulder against racism.”
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
- The ‘Inciting a Pogrom? Social Media and the Racist Disorder in Ballymena and Beyond during Summer 2025’ report will be launched on Monday 6 October, 11:00am – 1:00pm, at the UNISON Office, Belfast.
- The launch will include opening remarks from Patricia McKeown, presentation of findings by author Dessie Donnelly, and a panel discussion and Q&A.
- The Committee on the Administration of Justice (‘CAJ’) is an independent human rights organisation with cross community membership in Northern Ireland and beyond. CAJ was established in 1981 and is based in Belfast. For many years CAJ has had strands of anti-racism and migrant rights work, with a range of interventions seeking strategic policy change. CAJ currently has a strategic partnership project with the Derry-based North West Migrants Forum (NWMF).
- CAJ alongside the trade union UNISON co-convenes the Equality Coalition, a network of 100+ NGOs and trade unions campaigning and engaging on a range of equality issues in Northern Ireland whilst fostering collective solidarity among members and coordinated interventions.
- The Rabble Cooperative is a Belfast based technology cooperative comprised of members with backgrounds in human rights advocacy, trade union organising, policy research, journalism, teaching and facilitation. They support progressive organisations and social movements to realise the power of technology in strategies for social change.