Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon has said that last night’s hoax Halloween parade indicates the power of misinformation and its ability to spread at speed.
Hundreds of people gathered along O’Connell Street in Dublin city centre after information about a hoax parade was posted on an anonymous event website and shared on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
The gathering caused brief disruptions to Luas services.
However, gardaí issued a statement informing the public of the hoax and asked those gathered to “disperse safely”.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne programme, Mr Gannon raised concerns about the spread of misinformation and the issue of artificial election given the incident’s proximity to a potential general election.
He said that the issue of AI was not present during the last general election five years ago.
“It’s something that people need to be very conscious of and the State needs to be conscious of, be it through Coimisiún na Meán or any other State body,” he said.
“So that we can counter disinformation quickly,” he added.
Mr Gannon referenced a recent deepfake video of Taylor Swift that Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae posted on social media recently, in which the singer appeared to endorse him.
“That was quite funny, but all of a sudden when that becomes something a little bit more serious and people are putting out AI images of me, for example, saying something that I would never say contrary to my own values, that’s something that’s not too far off the horizon,” he said.
Mr Gannon said that State bodies should be able to counter AI-generated disinformation and be able to find who is creating the AI-generated content.
Following last night’s incident, gardaí have urged the public to “always verify any information online regarding upcoming events from trusted and reputable sources”.
“Public information on major events including traffic management, transport and public safety advice is often available on the garda website, Dublin City Council website and from other relevant stakeholders,” it said.
In a statement, An Garda Síochána said that “no criminal offences were disclosed” in relation to the hoax parade.
The Social Democrats TD also said that the hoax last night raises the question as to why there is not a Halloween parade.
“This is something that we could do very, very well,” he said.
He commended Dublin City Council for “a really good job in terms of some of the community events”.
“There very clearly is an appetite,” he added.
He said that Samhain is important to the people of Ireland, mentioning events in Co Limerick and Co Cork which took place over the last month.
