Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will build on the points made by Deputy Higgins. I am coming from a privacy rights perspective. Fundamentally, I come from the position that digital identity is the property of a data subject and that the subject should own and have control over it. While GDPR technically gives that control, it allows that once the subject is within a contract with terms and conditions, as needed on a digital platform, this arrangement circumvents the subject's power and control over the rights in question.

The review of and inquests into the 2016 US presidential election and the role of the now defunct Cambridge Analytica and its subsidiary and associated companies have shown what occurred when polling data identified African Americans would have voted for the Democratic candidate. What was engaged in by third parties funded by supporters - not political parties or political candidates themselves - was a campaign of voter suppression. In that regard, a specific campaign was undertaken, using social media platforms, to promote disillusionment in a community to suppress the vote. It was classified as a deterrence project. The data scientists involved coined the phrase "hope don’t show up to vote" campaign. It was run distinctly differently from the usual political campaign. It involves a misinformation campaign that looks like an opinion piece or editorial. It looks like posts from individuals.

We see it happening at present in Dublin in that there are digital advertising boards in public places with false information on vaccines, stating things about the Government, the HSE and public broadcasting. The information is being filmed and put on social media by unknown individuals, and it is then supported by very much co-ordinated pile-ons. This is an ongoing disruptor-funded campaign that is undermining our public health message. It is a deliberate campaign. This can happen with political campaigns. I ask that the commission's powers be broadened in this regard.

I fear that the manner in which we are giving powers to the commission and considering the control of political advertising is such that this Bill will be grossly out of date by the time it is enacted, however quickly that will be. I hope it will be very quick because it is very fine legislation otherwise. Considering what occurred in the US election campaign in 2016, we are already five years out of date regarding what can happen.

Just because Cambridge Analytica is gone does not mean there are not other organisations out there using privacy rights and digital identity for targeting and profiling purposes.

I ask that the commission be given a role in oversight of ensuring a digital literacy campaign goes on; that it be allowed to put up and run advertising similar to that which we see RTÉ running at the moment about fake news and what is correct news; that we have a means by which the commission can undertake reporting and enforcement; and that, where we see dark patterns in the use of algorithms for political purposes and we see trends in social media usage, the commission would have a role in reporting that and engaging with the Data Protection Commission.

I believe there is a huge body of work that needs to be done before we sign off on the political advertising aspect of this to ensure social media platforms are compelled to remove content, that the rules around publishing and putting up content on social media are not determined by Facebook and that our democracy is not controlled by Facebook or Twitter, as we have seen in recent weeks.

I am disturbed to hear freedom of expression being used because, outside of social media, freedom of expression is not an unqualified right. It is very much a qualified right with regard to print media or to any of us here who are cautioned when it comes to the use of privilege. Freedom of expression is not an appropriate motive for us to neglect the need on social media to regulate what is being done with profiling of voters in response to political polls. I think that aspect of this very fine Bill is too refined and, while we may be taking an initiative way ahead of others, that does not mean it should fall short of the reality in the public at present of how social media is being used and people's privacy and digital identity are being used. We need to do an extra piece of work around that section of this legislation.