Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I refer to a point I raised at the very beginning of the meeting about fighting on line. I think Deputy Denise Mitchell covered the matter very well during her contribution. The particular fight I am referring to occurred in May 2015 in Balbriggan. It was an advertised event, in so far as I have been informed and from my recollection, an event was set up. It is no longer on Facebook but it is online as we speak because I have it in front of me on Reddit. The media at the time sold it as a racially motivated fight. It was not; it was just a group of teenage kids. The problem I have with the response is that assault and battery is a crime, whether it is consensual or not, whether charges are pressed or not. It is still a crime. It may not be prosecuted but it is still a crime. I have a slight difficulty with the concept that if somebody puts up incendiary language in the comments of a fight video that the platform will take that down but not the fight itself. I am making this point on behalf of the kids I am looking at in the video on Reddit, who probably know no better unfortunately than to be engaged in that kind of activity. I am pretty sure they knew they were being recorded but I took the time to read the comments on Reddit. In response to a person who commented two years ago, I would be more concerned about the lad pulling the "Stanley" at 41 seconds in. A "Stanley" is a Stanley knife. Clearly this video was taken down so it is not on the Facebook platform, but the problem I have with social media platforms taking the approach that Facebook has taken is that this video was available for well over a month. I remember discussing it with a senior member of An Garda Síochána in Balbriggan in 2015. The item was taken down and there was an investigation and people were identified, in so far as I am aware. From that perspective it was looked after. The fact is that it was up for quite a while because I was able to go back and view it because I received emails and had a very distraught parent phone me about the fact that their child was in the video but was not participating in the fight.

Assault is a crime. It should not be on the Facebook platform because Facebook is subject to the rules of this jurisdiction. I want to highlight that before the witnesses withdraw.