Mr. Ronan Lupton:

That is right and we have seen certain celebrities having to take actions where fake news and fake material have been posted in advertising that has put their reputations and employment in jeopardy. They have no choice but to go to the courts and ask for disclosure on who put that information out there, and that is an expensive process. If an individual was subject to that type of activity with fake news, which has a number of different elements to it, that one-stop-shop provision could facilitate a cheaper mechanism by which those individuals could seek recourse as against the platforms, without having to go to the courts, but they would still have the right to do that as well. The Deputy is right there is a thrust to keep the economic development online so one can put an app together and do what he or she wants with it within certain restrictions with commercial transactions. I made this point because if the State simply makes the hosts publishers, we suddenly encounter an immediate incompatibility with the European framework and law, and there is a huge disincentive to do a lot of things. That does not marry at all with the protection of children online etc., so there is a jarring effect in the point I am making. I am not trying to say the two things are separate. They are not.

The platforms provide those areas to put the content out there, but we need to be careful that we comply. My view is that as a State we need to really engage at European level to ensure we get what we want and try to protect citizens in that sense.