Hijacking a person's online identity so someone else can post under an individual's name is commonplace and extremely distressing for victims.
That's according to second-year UCC law student, Alicia Joy-O'Sullivan who set up the Safety Over Stigma campaign to support victims of such crimes.
She appeared before a Joint Committee yesterday to discuss the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill, which is currently working its way through the Oireachtas.
A fake Instagram account was set up under her name, used real photos from her actual account; but then also included photos and videos of a naked girl without showing her face, to give the illusion that these were her own images.
The fake Instagram also tried to sell pornographic content by linking to another website.
The proposed bill aims to establish robust regulations to deal with the spread of harmful online content including on social media platforms.
Speaking to RedFM News, Alicia Joy-O'Sullivan says she sees the exact same thing happening, every single week, to other women she knows or follows on Instagram.
"No, this is not rare in the slightest. When I posted about this on Twitter when it had happened to me initially back in April, the amount of messages I got privately and also people replying to my tweet publicly, saying that the same thing happened to me, it took a week for Instagram to take it down, which adds to the distressing part.
"It should be taken down straight away. And then every single week, I see it happening to another girl that I know or I follow on Instagram, this exact same thing, and it shouldn't be happening.
"It's just so distressing."
