Ms Caroline Counihan:

I will do my best. To address the Deputy's final point, I fully agree victims should have the right to sue platforms and that a few hefty settlements would soften the cough of those online platforms that have not been as careful in exercising the due diligence we would expect of them to protect people from serious harm. Nevertheless, I must qualify that by stating it is not a bad thing in itself because it still puts too great an onus on the victim. What will happen is that people will say they cannot face such proceedings, that they do not care about the money, and that all they want is for the content to be taken down and reversed as far as possible. They will say they want the process to happen in peace and privacy, quickly and cheaply. The process has to work for victims.

In our various submissions to the committee, we have argued strongly that the role of the digital safety commissioner should include oversight of companies to ensure they keep up to certain standards. The commissioner should oversee any take-down procedure and there should be a right of appeal to the commissioner if there is any failure in such a procedure. Ultimately, the process should be backed by civil sanctions. I would not rule out the idea, as a last resort, of making directors of rogue Internet service providers criminally liable for indefensible failure to take down harmful material where it has been notified to them. The existence of a criminal offence would make them sit up.