Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 24 March 2022
196. Deputy Alan Farrell asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media the status of her Department’s efforts to tackle cyber harassment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15594/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Online Safety and Media Regulation (OSMR) Bill 2022 will establish a multi-person Media Commission (to be known as Coimisiún na Meán) including an Online Safety Commissioner, dissolve the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, establish regulatory frameworks for online safety and the regulation of audiovisual media services, and transpose the revised Audiovisual Media Services Directive.
It will be the role of the Online Safety Commissioner to oversee the regulatory framework for online safety. As part of the framework, the Commissioner will devise binding online safety codes that will set out how regulated online services, including social media services, are expected to deal with certain defined categories of harmful online content on their platforms.
The categories of harmful online content set out in the OSMR Bill include online content that falls under the rubric of cyber harassment. These include certain offence-specific categories of online content, which are linked to existing criminal offences contrary to section 10(1) of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997 (as amended), and the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020. The Bill also provides for a further category of content, not related to an offence, by which a person bullies or humiliates another person (cyber bullying).
It is intended that including these categories of content within the meaning of harmful online content in the Bill will have the effect of systematically tackling the availability, on designated online services, of such content online. Under the Bill, in the event of a failure to comply with a relevant online safety code, and subject to Court approval, Coimisiún na Meán will have the power to sanction non-compliant online services, including through financial sanctions of up to €20 million or 10% of turnover.
The Bill was initiated in the Seanad on 25 January of this year and completed Second Stage on 22 February. It is currently awaiting Committee stage in the Seanad. Given the importance of the Bill, I am keen to see it enacted by the Summer Recess. This would pave the way for the formal establishment of An Coimisiún by Ministerial commencement order, which would allow An Coimisiún begin the work of developing online safety codes to tackle harmful online content, including cyber harassment.
