Social media abuse
Nobody is immune to online abuse, but there are steps you can take if you feel you have become a victim of cyber bullying at Work.
You should report cyber bullying if:
- content is published online about you that is untrue or defamatory
- personal work information is shared online that identifies you or service users (clients/patients)
- you are subjected to sustained trolling
You can report cyber bullying in the HSE by bringing evidence of your complaint to your line manager.
If you are the victim of cyber bullying we can help you by seeking the advice of our legal team and the assistance of An Garda Siochána.
The law and cyber bullying
The law is still catching up with cyber crime including cyber bullying, but it is possible for Irish employers to discipline employees and even fire them for their
behaviour and activities outside of work.
Precedent cases
Existing Irish law has been used to criminally convict persons of different types of cyber bullying.
- Fraping Conviction, Donegal Circuit Court,Criminal Damage Act 1991
- Defamation on Facebook Conviction, Donegal Circuit Court
- Protection of Employees in the Workplace,Videography & Photography, Data Protection Act
- Policing Example of Suspension of Police Officers because of misuse of social media in the workplace
You can report abusive content or request for it to be removed from the internet.
The best way to report abusive content or spam on Facebook is by using the Report link that appears near the content itself.
X (Twitter)
You can report directly from an individual Tweet or profile for certain violations, including: spam, abusive or harmful content, inappropriate ads, self-harm and impersonation.
If you want to remove a photo, profile link, or webpage from Google Search results, you usually need to ask the website owner (webmaster) to remove the information.
YouTube
If you have an issue with content on YouTube, flag the content and submit a report via the YouTube Reporting and Enforcement Center.