Facebook accounts of four Fine Gael European election candidates being operated from India

Analysis of transparency information provided by the social media platform operated by Meta reveal Maria Walsh, Nina Carbery, Regina Doherty and John Mullins all have people in India registered as managing their accounts.

Ms Doherty also has someone registered in Australia as managing her account. Facebook transparency pages also show the accounts are operated by people from Ireland. Sitting Fine Gael MEP Sean Kelly’s account does not indicate it is being run from outside Ireland.

At least two people based in India are registered as operating each of the accounts of the other European election candidates.

Fine Gael was extremely critical when it emerged Sinn Féin’s accounts were being operated by people based Serbia and Germany.

Sinn Féin’s accounts are still being operated in Germany, UK and Belgium. The Facebook accounts of Fianna Fáil’s European elections candidates are managed in Ireland apart from sitting MEP Billy Kelleher whose page has people

When it emerged Sinn Féin’s accounts were managed from Serbia, Fine Gael welcomed proposals by Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien, who oversees electoral reform, to introduce new laws to banning political parties from operating social media accounts abroad.

Mr O’Brien did not commence the part of the Electoral Reform Bill which potentially could have banned parties from having their social media accounts operated from overseas due to it conflicting with an EU directive on transparency around political advertising.

However, when the new laws were first flagged Fine Gael senator John Cummins said: “New laws preventing political parties from having social media accounts managed outside Ireland will ensure greater transparency and accountability of our democratic process.”

Senator Cummins also questioned why Sinn Féin’s Facebook pages are being “controlled by forces outside of the State”.

Fine Gael said a UK based agency has been contracted to provide analytical reports on some of our European candidates’ overall social media metrics.

A spokesperson said the company has staff members based outside of the UK but contract “ is fully GDPR compliant”.

“The account and ad management are exclusively managed by our digital team based in Ireland,” he said

“This information, like all other parties and candidates, is publicly available on Facebook, is in compliance with the Electoral Acts, the Electoral Commission’s Framework on Political Advertising and will be declared in the party’s election returns to Standards in Public Office Commission, he added.

Meanwhile, Fine Gael has spent more on Facebook and Instagram ads for Nina Carberry in the weeks before the European election than any other party has spent on any other individual candidate.

Fine Gael has spent €15,167 on the former jockey’s ad campaign on Meta platforms in the last 30 days, despite the celebrity candidate being one of the least visible of any major party candidate on broadcast debates.

Contrastingly, Fine Gael has spent €8,757 on her constituency running mate and incumbent MEP Maria Walsh in the same period.

Meta publishes publicly accessible reports about the ads running on its platforms, which include details on their content, who paid for the posts and their estimated reach.

The Meta Ad Library reports also offer insights into how parties run their online campaigns, including who they see as their target audiences – or potential voters – on social media.

Fine Gael Senator Regina Doherty’s post predominantly focused on women and users over the age of 30.

Some of her ads are also more targeted at mothers, parents, grandparents, nurses and teachers.

Fianna Fáil hopeful Cynthia Ní Mhúrchú focused some portion of her ad spends on those with an interest in agriculture and on Irish speakers, while Dublin Labour candidate Aodhán Ó Ríordáin has focused in part on those in third-level education.

Sitting Sinn Féin MEP Chris MacManus focused some of his spending on film buffs, sharing a clip about how he got a part in the film Jimmy’s Hall as one his ‘paid for’ posts.

Mr McManus’s party is consistently one of the biggest political spenders on Meta ads, with Sinn Féin spending almost €52,000 on its own advertising in the last 30 days.

Their currently active ads show Sinn Féin leaders Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle O’Neill calling for voters to support Sinn Féin candidates.

There are also individual ads for each European candidate.

Meanwhile, Fine Gael spent €10,322 on Meta advertising for the party in the last 30 days, followed by the Green Party with a spend of €8,603 and Fianna Fáil with €7,374.

Additionally, the parties pay for ads about individual candidates, with Fine Gael candidates for European election spending over €40,000 in total in the last 30 days and Fianna Fáil candidates spending just under €30,000.

Three of the top ten candidates with the largest social media spend are running under the Fine Gael banner – Nina Carberry, Maria Walsh and Regina Doherty.

Fianna Fáil incumbent Barry Andrews has the tenth largest spend on Meta ads in the last 30 days, with a sum of around €6,000.

Meanwhile, Social Democrats candidate Sinéad Gibney and Senator Pauline O’Reilly, who is the Green Party candidate in Midlands North-West, have both spent just under €6,500.