Anger as virtual coffee morning hosted by Limerick Women's Caucus hacked
A VIRTUAL coffee morning held today by Limerick’s female councillors had to end early, after it was hacked by so-called ‘Zoombombers’.
The Limerick Women’s Caucus – a group made of up of the nine local female councillors – held the online fundraiser to mark International Women’s Day and to raise money for Adapt, which aids those in domestic abuse situations.
During the event, which was held on the videoconferencing site Zoom, those taking part were subjected to racist, sexist and ageist comments, images and sounds from anonymous accounts who entered the public event.
Zoom-bombing refers to a disruptive intrusion into a video conference by internet trolls.
One of the members of the group, Cllr Olivia O’Sullivan said: “A number of accounts started joining, and there was all this digital noise, and people speaking in a language we couldn’t understand. It was an attempt to sabotage it, and take it over, and a couple of graphic images appeared. We had to shut down the meeting.”
The event, chaired by metropolitan district leader Sarah Kiely, saw a representative of Adapt give an example of their work, as well as Sharon Slater give a talk on Limerick’s civic leaders of the past.
Limerick’s nine female councillors also made contributions to the coffee morning, while members of the public were also present.
There was also a plan for the coffee morning to hear a specially written song from popular local singer Emma Langford, before the hackers intervened.
Cllr O’Sullivan added: “It’s so frustrating for this to happen. It takes a bit of work for us all to come together. We are a non-political group, bringing nine councillors together to support women in politics to encourage more women to get into politics. It’s our first time doing an event like this. What’s concerning is that I wouldn’t like to think there would be people affected or triggered by what they experienced.”
Cllr Elisa O’Donovan also tweeted: “So unfortunate that we had to end our @limerickwomen Virtual Coffee morning. I was on tech support and not only could I not live stream but then we got hacked also.”
Meeting chair, Cllr Kiely said: "Hopefully we can do a similar event again as I felt it was going really well. It was so empowering to see such support for the charity and the female councillors. We had over 45 attendees and its disappointing to see what happened but it won't stop us. We choose to challenge and change by supporting each other in politics."
"I was shocked and disappointed by the hacking. Anger came after as this was our first event and it was so unfortunate to have this kind of carry on," said the Janesboro woman.
Similar intrusions have taken place at International Women’s Day events across the world.