Skip to main content
Normal View

Social Media

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 February 2022

Tuesday, 8 February 2022

Questions (275)

Michael Healy-Rae

Question:

275. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media if she will address a matter (details supplied) regarding regulation of social media; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5980/22]

View answer

Written answers

The systemic regulation of certain online services is provided for as part of the recently published Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill, initiated in Seanad Éireann on 25 January 2022. Among other things, the Bill will establish a new Media Commission in place of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, provide for the appointment of an Online Safety Commissioner, and establish a regulatory framework for online safety.

The Online Safety Commissioner will oversee the regulatory framework for online safety and ensure, through binding online safety codes, that relevant designated online services, including certain social media platforms, are operating systems and processes which effectively minimise the spread of some of the most serious forms of harmful online content.

While the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill is progressing through the Houses of the Oireachtas, I have established an expert group on an individual complaints mechanism to examine some of the complex practical and legal issues associated with the establishment of such a mechanism. This follows the important work of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media which, as part of its pre-legislative scrutiny report on the General Scheme of the Bill, included recommendations for provision of an individual complaints mechanism for harmful online content.

The issue of providing for avenues of redress in terms of individual pieces of content in the online world is complex. The approach in the development of the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill to date has been to provide the Online Safety Commissioner with the power to require that regulated online services have effective complaints mechanisms in place with powers of audit and investigation provided to the Commissioner in that respect. The Bill also provides for a super complaints mechanism whereby nominated bodies may notify the Commissioner of concerns regarding a designated online service’s compliance with an online safety code, or of concerns relating to the availability of harmful online content on a service.

I am conscious that the introduction of an individual complaints mechanism raises a number of complex practical and legal issues, including in terms of the sheer volume of content online, that Ireland will be regulating a number of services on an EU-wide basis, and questions relating to due process requirements and how quickly decisions could reasonably be made by the Online Safety Commissioner.

I attended the first meeting of the expert group on an individual complaints mechanism on 31 January 2022, and look forward to receiving their recommendations, within 90 days, for how best to address these difficult issues. I have published the group's terms of reference on my Department's website and note the appointed members of the group:

- Chair: Isolde Goggin, former Chair of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission;

- Brian O’Neill, independent academic expert on online safety for children and Deputy Chair of the National Advisory Council for Online Safety;

- Ana Niculescu, CEO of Hotline.ie;

- Ronan Lupton, Senior Counsel;

- Baroness Kidron, children’s rights advocate, Chair of 5Rights Foundation; and,

- Peter Tyndall, former Ombudsman, Information Commissioner, and Commissioner for Environmental Information.

Once the work of the expert group is completed, I will consider their recommendations in the context of potential Committee Stage amendments to the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill.

Top
Share