Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The fifth session of today's proceedings gives members an opportunity to discuss options for future collaboration. I asked members in advance to think about which organisations or mechanisms they would consider appropriate for working together to advance a cohesive multilateral agenda of regulation. This is our third international grand committee hearing. We have had social media companies before us. We often hear many of the same answers to our questions. Today's meeting has been very productive. We have heard expert views that have given us options for a path forward. It is clear that no international rule-making body is dealing with this issue in a coherent way. We need the rule of law to apply to social media when it comes to political interference, political advertising, online harm and fake news, but it is not there at the moment.

We will hold a press conference at 5.30 p.m. I want to open the meeting up to members before then. What is the overriding message that is coming forward? From my own point of view, I think the issue of targeted political advertising on social media has been recurring throughout all the hearings today. I will let those present think about our message for a moment. Maybe we could consider recommending a moratorium on micro-targeted political advertising until regulation is in place. I am not suggesting that there could not be political advertising online, but that the micro-targeted approach could be stalled temporarily. This is something the members might want to discuss. Perhaps we can all agree on this as an issue that could come out of today's deliberations.

There is another issue that I would like to open up to members. We might consider the taxation of social media companies to support public service broadcasting. There is real concern about journalism, factual information, factual news, combatting fake news and supporting public service media and public service broadcasting. We are looking at ways to support that. Are members in agreement on coming together on these issues before the press conference later this afternoon?