EDMO Ireland has a new report on Disinformation Impacts on Community and Voluntary Organisations by Dr Shane Murphy & Dr Eileen Culloty. The report is published as part of the annual Disinformation Forum hosted by Media Literacy Ireland and EDMO Ireland.
Disinformation harms democracy by undermining trust and evidence while amplifying social divisions. To date, research has primarily focused on macro-level impacts, investigating the influence of disinformation on electoral outcomes and public attitude shifts.
Impacts on the community and voluntary sector have received less attention. This is important because the sector ought to be a key pillar in the effort to counter disinformation as it is ideally placed to promote accurate information and media literacy within communities
This report seeks to understand how the extent to which the sector encounters disinformation and hostility; the consequences for day-to-day operations, and actions taken or proposed in response. Data were collected through a partnership with The Wheel, Ireland’s national association of community and voluntary organisations, charities, and social enterprises.
A survey distributed to The Wheel network yielded 200 responses and 20 semi-structured interviews were conducted between November 2025 and January 2026 with organisations that had experienced direct disinformation or harassment.
Key findings
Among survey respondents, 85% reported encountering “anti-NGO” narratives online. These encompass criticisms that the sector is: “a waste of taxpayer money” (67%); “corrupt” (56%); and “unaccountable” (55%)
They survey asked respondents to explain how mis/disinformation, including anti- NGO narratives, impacts the ability of the organisation to function day-to-day. The most prevalent responses were:
- 85% say it’s impacting their objectives
- 55% say it forced them to adopt new communications strategies
- 42% say it is damaging their credibility
- 26% say they experience direct targeting and harassment
Societal Distrust: Misinformation is delegitimising the sector by treating frontline expertise as opinion rather than evidence, dismissing advocacy work as political or unrealistic, and framing organisations as ideological, extreme, or corrupt. Interviewees reported reduced influence in several interconnected ways as policymakers, media, and partners become less willing to engage with organisations that have been delegitimised by misinformation.
Funding and Bureaucratic Pressures: Funding narratives have emerged as a common vector of attack in disinformation campaigns against civil society organisations, with perpetrators using loaded language such as “wasteful,” “overpaid,” “bloated,” and “unaccountable” to create negative perceptions.
Interviewees report that increased compliance demands are a significant challenge as audits, reporting, due diligence, and funder requirements bring substantial time commitments that divert resources from core mission activities. The administrative burden has become so substantial that some organisations are avoiding funding opportunities altogether.
Direct Targeting and Staff Safety: Interviewees report that staff and volunteers face routine harassment including online abuse, filming, doxxing, hostile questioning, and coordinated complaints. This harassment is particularly acute in migration and LGBTQ+ work contexts. Increased security measures have prompted significant operational changes within organisations, with some leaving social media platforms often on Gardaí advice, while others have ceased posting staff and service-user images and minimally promote events
“Baiting” Emails: Organisations have identified specific ‘bait’ tactics designed to extract controversial responses from civil society professionals and representatives. These tactics include posing as displaced people asking how to enter Ireland illegally, and posing as under-15s requesting hormones or medical access without parental knowledge. This evidence suggests that manufactured content and disinformation are being used strategically to polarise conversations and create content that can be used to attack or discredit organisations working with vulnerable communities.
Bait messages are effective at disrupting work because safeguarding protocols operate on a precautionary principle. The use of safeguarding language automatically triggers mandatory referrals to Tusla and An Garda Síochána, requiring staff to treat all incoming messages as legitimate by default, including those that appear suspicious. This approach ensures that genuine concerns are never missed, even if it means handling potentially false positives.
Internal Disruption: Disinformation circulates within the sector, with false narratives being repeated by staff, volunteers, board members, councillors and local partners. Anti-migrant narratives were identified as particularly disruptive, while some staff expressed reluctance to work with certain groups due to fears shaped by online narratives.
Disinformation leads to weaker participation with lower service uptake and reduced cohesion, while internal conflict strains trust and impacts recruitment and retention. Local collaboration weakens when boards, councillors, or partners accept false narratives, creating a cycle of diminished community engagement and organisational effectiveness.
The report available below presents an accessible, high-level overview of the results. A more detailed analysis of the results will be developed into a conference presentation and a research article. These will be available on the EDMO Ireland website.
