Mr. Ryan Meade:

I might also answer the Deputy's previous question. He was right to mention livestreaming as a category of content that needed special caution. At YouTube, we have preliminary hurdles that people need to jump through before they get the ability to livestream. For example, they need to have a certain number of followers and cannot be brand new. They cannot just create an account and suddenly start livestreaming. If there is a violation of our policies, their ability to livestream can be taken away. We have taken the approach that livestreaming is something that needs special attention.

Regarding the types of livestreaming the Deputy mentioned, he may or may not be aware that we updated out policy on hate speech this year, which has resulted in violations by people who were livestreaming. In one fairly high-profile case, we terminated that account. The Deputy may have seen that there has been quite a reaction to that. This shows that there has been progress in the development and implementation of our policy. There is no question but that we will suspend accounts and remove people's opportunity to use these tools if they violate the policies.

The question on spent convictions is an interesting one, in that it cuts across privacy law. The right to be forgotten was been established in European privacy law. The practical implication of this is that platforms, including Google Search, must assess requests from users to delist information. The information may still be out there on the Internet, but we must assess the request to delist it from our search engine. The law also requires us to apply a balancing test. As such, there has to be a consideration of whether other issues need to be taken into account. Naturally, any decision we make on this basis is subject to dispute, in that people may say that we made the right or wrong decision. In such cases, there is recourse to the Data Protection Commission, DPC, as the matter is handled under privacy law. The individual in question can make a complaint to the DPC if he or she is not happy with our decision. The law requires us to have a balancing test. As Mr. Ó Broin stated, private companies like us may not always be the right arena in which to make such decisions, but that is what is required of us under the law. We need to consider requests as they come in, apply the test and make a determination on whether information should be delisted.