Ms Liz Carolan:

I would love to solve all of those problems. It is my job to try to ensure that we can, but many of those issues have to be dealt with at European level. I do not believe Ireland has the weight as a single country to do it, but the US does. The European Democracy Action Plan and other initiatives are looking at that broader picture. If we try to move too far beyond influence on electoral processes not only will we get ourselves into trouble, but we could end up discrediting the electoral commission if it ends up getting into arguments and fights about, for example, health disinformation, as mentioned earlier. It could be maligned in that way.

When it comes to terms of use and community standards, they will always refer within them to compliance with national laws and that those laws have precedence over the terms of use and community standards. This is why we need to make sure that the electoral commission has legislative powers to be able to mandate, in particular, transparency measures on platforms but not just related to political advertisements. As new technology evolves, having that written into legislation will be important. We can shame individuals who run the large companies but in five or ten years that may not be Facebook and Google. Who runs TikTok, never mind Gab and all the other platforms that are increasingly taking part of the communications? Staying in a particular lane is the pathway to making sure we have an institution which is trusted. Hopefully, Europe will fix it.