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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Disinformation harms democracy by undermining trust and evidence while amplifying social divisions. 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is important because these organisations play a key role in maintaining social cohesion. As such, 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<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the sector operates in a complex context. There is often confusion about its role and areas of operation. In addition, there are long-standing debates about governance models and the state\u2019s reliance on voluntary oganisations. More recently, some organisations have been subject to targeted campaigns, especially if they address issues such as migration or gender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This report seeks to understand how\u00a0 Irish community and voluntary organisations experience and negotiate these issues. Specifically, it aims to understand: the extent to which the sector encounters disinformation and hostility; the consequences for day-to-day operations, and actions taken or proposed in response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This study employed mixed methods to investigate disinformation’s impact on the Irish community and voluntary sector. Data were collected through a partnership with The Wheel, Ireland’s national association of community and voluntary organisations, charities, and social enterprises.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Survey:<\/strong> A survey distributed to The Wheel network yielded 200 responses. Questions covered disinformation prevalence, targeted narratives, operational impacts, and current response capabilities. The survey included both closed-ended Likert scales and open-ended questions to capture detailed experiences.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Interviews:<\/strong> Following the survey, 20 semi-structured interviews were conducted between November 2025 and January 2026 with organisations that had experienced direct disinformation or harassment, using purposive sampling to ensure representation of firsthand experiences. Interviews explored four key areas: reputational damage, impacts on staff and volunteers, service user consequences, and organisational response strategies.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Analysis<\/strong>: Data analysis followed a sequential explanatory approach, using the survey results to identify patterns and qualitative interviews to provide deeper contextual understanding of how disinformation affects operations and the specific mechanisms through which organisations respond to these challenges.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n This report 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n There were 200 responses to the survey representing community groups and mid- to large-sized charities working across a range of social issues, with particular exposure among those engaged in areas such as migration, race, and gender equality.\u00a0 Exposure to \u201canti-NGO\u201d narratives<\/strong>: The survey inquired about exposure to \u201canti-NGO\u201d sentiment and anti-NGO narratives. While such sentiment can represent legitimate questioning of organisations and should not automatically be considered disinformation, these narratives are often indicative of a coordinated pushback against the sector.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Among respondents, 85% reported encountering \u201canti-NGO\u201d narratives online. These encompass criticisms that the sector is: <\/p>\n\n\n\n The most prevalent responses were: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Interview Results<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Five key themes emerged from 20 semi-structured interviews conducted to understand the impacts of disinformation on civil society organizations’ day-today operations. The research revealed that disinformation affects these organisations through multiple interconnected pathways, each presenting distinct challenges to their functioning and effectiveness. The themes capture the range of operational impacts that organisations reported experiencing, from broader societal perceptions to direct tactical pressures and internal organisational dynamics.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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. This systematic devaluation of professional knowledge and community representation undermines the credibility and authority that civil society organisations rely upon to carry out their essential functions.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou\u2019re radical just by virtue of working in this sector.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 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. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n In response to this diminished credibility, organisations often soften their language and recommendations to appear less confrontational or ideological, further diluting their impact. Meanwhile, the stigma and distrust generated by disinformation campaigns drive service users away, undermining the organisations’ ability to reach the communities they serve and reducing their overall effectiveness and influence within the civic landscape.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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, where interviewees described the abuse as often racist, misogynistic, or focused on physical appearance\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Interview findings reveal that 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. The research identified tell-tale signs that help identify such bait attempts, including stilted tone that may be AI-generated, atypical sender profiles, and pointedly direct messages that seem designed to provoke emotional or defensive responses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey don\u2019t need to be \u2018successful\u2019 to slow you down and waste time and resources\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n 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 S\u00edoch\u00e1na, 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0Interview findings reveal that 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPeople who are supposed to be supporting the work become a barrier.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Interview findings reveal that 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n 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. Research has … Read More “New Report on Disinformation Impacts on the Charity and Voluntary Sector”<\/span> »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1534,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"twitterCardType":"","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Cover.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1532"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1545,"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532\/revisions\/1545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Survey Results<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Day-to-day implications of mis\/disinformation<\/strong>: They survey asked respondents to explain how mis\/disinformation, including anti- NGO narratives, impacts the ability of the organisation to function day-to-day.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Societal Distrust<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
Funding and Bureaucratic Pressures<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nDirect Targeting and Staff Safety<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Findings reveal that increased security measures have prompted significant operational changes within organisations, with some leaving social media platforms often on Garda\u00ed advice, while others have ceased posting staff and service-user images and minimally promote events\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cBaiting\u201d Emails<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
Internal Disruption<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"