Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the representatives of Facebook to today's hearing. At their previous appearance a few months ago, I asked a question about hate speech on social media platforms. I acknowledge the written response I received indicating that 3,000 staff had been added to the community operations team, bringing the total number to approximately 7,500. Ms Sweeney referred to a figure of 20,000 people. Will she explain the difference between those two figures? Does the figure of 7,500 refer to monitors? What is the profile of the other 12,500 people?

This has been an interesting debate and the reaction of members of the public in the past few weeks has been amazing. They regard the lack of regulation of the Internet, Facebook and other companies as a significant issue. They believe that the less regulation there is of these entities, the more profitable are their operations. I take into consideration a previous statement to the committee that an increase in the number of people involved in regulation would reduce Facebook's profitability. That is why there has been a dip in the value of the company on the stock market. Will Facebook executives, specifically the company's aforementioned vice president, look forward to increased regulation if it affects the bottom line? Will the general public be well served by such regulation?

Do those with responsibility for corporate governance in Facebook hold the view that less regulation means more profit and makes the company more desirable to the stock market? Is it Facebook's view that employing more staff will cost more in its back pocket? There are two competing views here. More regulation means Facebook will make less profit. How will Facebook square that circle? The general public's view is that Facebook is unregulated in many ways, as has been shown by the events of the past few weeks and the data breaches of the past few months.

We also spoke about the Facebook live feature. Many people have expressed concerns to me about whether it is possible to regulate something that is instant. A person can broadcast a live feed from a nightclub or anywhere else. How can this live feature be monitored? How effective is a 24 hour time lag on the monitoring system if the footage is already available on the site? As Facebook changes and evolves, will the lack of regulation of its live feature prove a stumbling block? I cannot see how Facebook or any other entity could monitor a feed that is going out live to the web.

Facebook Live, as an entity, cannot be monitored and this issue cannot be solved because there is no 24 hour time lag within which the company could identify that there is an issue with a feed. These are big issues being discussed in society at large.

Deputy Eamon Ryan raised the serious issue of people looking up something online and then receiving advertising feedback the next day. This process needs to be explained because members of the public believe big brother is watching every move and angle. We famously saw the picture of the chief executive of Facebook in his own headquarters with a sticker placed over the webcam because he was not sure whether it was feeding images of him to the Internet. People fear they are being watched online without their knowledge.

On the issue of underage access to the platform, specifically 13 year olds, certain forms of identification, as opposed to PPS numbers, are required to buy a phone, apply for a credit card and open a bank account. Modern technology facilitates virtually everything. I do most of my banking online and send most of my documents to my bank online. Why can Facebook not ensure that people of a certain age profile do not access the platform?

I welcome that Facebook has announced it is introducing a limiter to make people aware that they are spending an excessive amount of time online. That is very important because conversations in living rooms have died as a result of the number of people looking at their phones and being online. Today's announcement is positive but Facebook should go a step further by requiring users to update their ID online and then verify their account. Such a measure would also help to solve the problem of fake accounts and similar issues. It would create the line of command and traceability that are required.

There are major issues here, which require regulation whether at a national or European level.