28 May 2018

openDemocracy: How Irish anti-abortion activists are drawing on Brexit and Trump campaigns to influence referendum (2 May 2018)

Transatlantic links between anti-choice groups remain strong and US activists are framing Ireland’s referendum as a major symbolic fight. Social media is emerging as a key battleground, with foreign and Irish anti-abortion and ‘alt-right’ activists targeting voters with Facebook ads.

Irish anti-choice groups have also enlisted some of the same American and British companies and individuals that used controversial data-mining and targeting techniques to campaign for Donald Trump and Brexit – including senior Vote Leave figures and a company that built Trump’s America First app and previously worked for the US National Rifle Association. [...]

Borwick is also a former consultant at Cambridge Analytica – the company financed by Trump-supporting billionaire Robert Mercer, and “put together” by Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon, who once served as Cambridge Analytica’s vice president. [...]

Ireland’s Pro Life Campaign also hired a digital company, uCampaign, which previously worked with the Trump and Vote Leave campaigns. Past clients include an Australian anti-marriage equality organisation and the US National Rifle Association (NRA).  

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