Pippa O’Connor has called on Instagram to take action against “troll accounts”, after she received a slew of mean messages from an anonymous user.
Taking to her Instagram Story, the mother-of-two shared a screenshot of the messages – which accused her of flouting lockdown restrictions in Kildare.
The same account also accused Pippa of secretly going under the knife by writing: “What plastic surgeon would you recommend for me? You had such work done to your jaw and overall face and overall features so would love to know your recommendations.”
Pippa named and shamed the anonymous user, and wrote: “Yet another account set up just to send me utter s***e and hate!”
“I don’t even bat an eyelid anymore! I LAUGH!…but #BeKind lasted all of two seconds. When will @instagram stop troll accounts.”
Pippa also poked fun at the plastic surgery comment by admitting she was “delighted” they thought she had work done.
Last year, Pippa opened up about dealing with online hate – and admitted that she has stopped “feeding the trolls”
“I only said to my husband a week ago actually, I’m so glad and fortunate that I’m the age that I am, I’m 35 this year,” she told Mario Rosenstock on Today FM.
“I’m glad that I am content and confident in myself because sometimes I don’t know how capable I would have been ten years ago with some of the things that are said.”
“Only recently someone said something just so ridiculous to me late at night and I saw it the next day and I didn’t respond – and then she replied the next day saying ‘Oh sorry about that I was drunk.’”
“So I think a lot of the time, because it’s so easy to send me or anyone a message, I do think people send things without even thinking or they think that you won’t even see it.”
Pippa continued: “There’s no excuse, but I do think people don’t even think, they just make flippant remarks and they don’t even realise that it could actually hurt or affect someone.”
Pippa added that the online trolls want a reaction and that’s why she has started to ignore hateful comments online.
“My new thing now is just don’t feed the trolls. I think that’s an amazing thing to live by for anyone who has ever experienced something.”
“I did send someone a message about 15 months ago, privately. It was really nicely worded and I think the nicer you are back to people, she came back absolutely grovelling, ‘I’m so embarrassed, don’t know why I said that.’”
“I think it’s a reflection on them, I always say that. If someone goes out of their way to say something particularly nasty to you its something going on in their own heads or their own lives.”
“I actually feel sorry for them instead of feeling annoyed at them,” she added.
