Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for attending and their presentations. I have an opinion on all social media apps and it may be that I am a bit old school. I have not had a pleasant experience of them and some of the stuff I see on Facebook alarms me, to be perfectly honest. This is material that has got onto pages and been shared in the public domain. I understand that it is difficult for Facebook to police it if it has, as the witnesses said, 1 billion users a day online. The Chairman raised the issue of the Facebook live feature. I welcome it because it is good for debate and campaigning groups, but there is a darker side to the feature. In May, Facebook pledged it would bring 3,000 extra staff on board after a video was streamed in Thailand of a murder. It was viewed approximately 370 times before it was removed. I find that alarming. It took 24 hours for it to be taken offline. I ask the witnesses about that because there is a darker side which the Chairman touched on. I am a bit startled by the response of the witnesses when we were talking about young people fighting online. The witnesses said it has to be reported if someone is being bullied or if there are derogatory comments. Is it not enough to see that a young child is being attacked? One does not need to prove it is bullying when one can see a child being beaten up or fighting. It should not fall under those policy guidelines, it should be removed automatically because of the distress to the child, the family and the community in general. Facebook really needs to tighten up on that. I was not happy with the response that unless the child is mocked or jeered, it will not be taken down. I find that alarming.

Does Facebook have enough staff at present to deal with the workload it has? How many times does a video have to be reported before it is removed? I have a question on Facebook stories. We raised issues before about other social media apps which have been used to bully young people in particular. Once the thing is viewed, it goes. Does Facebook have policies? Does it retain the media that are there given how difficult it is to prove something if it is removed? It is distressing for parents and staff.

If I report something to Facebook, there is a list of questions to be answered and one ticks the relevant box. Will the delegates explain the process to be followed after a report has been made? How long does a member of staff take to process the complaint and what are the guidelines to be followed? As I am sure Facebook receives many complaints, responding within 24 hours seems rather quick, but I am concerned about whether Facebook goes into sufficient detail.