Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all of our guests for being with us today. I know that it is not easy, especially when doing things virtually but such is the world. The witnesses are probably more used to interacting online than we are.

I share the concerns as expressed by most members and witnesses here today about the online political advertising element of the electoral reform Bill being just limited to the election period. The media commission and EU laws will regulator year-round content. I also appreciate that, from the perspective of the witnesses, it would be an awful lot easier if there was seamless alignment between what we propose here, through the electoral reform Bill, and the media commission and EU regulations. From our perspective, what we are tasked with is what is in the interest of the common good and not what is necessarily easiest.

As both Facebook and Twitter have their European headquarters in Dublin, there is a huge opportunity for us to be the leaders on this issue. I wish to acknowledge the leadership shown by Facebook when it comes to transparency through its own public ad library.

I have a question for both of the witnesses. From a Twitter perspective, I ask Mr. Costello to talk us through Twitter's engagement with the EU electoral commission during its election cycle and perhaps, in part, any learnings that he thinks Ireland could benefit from.

I seek an assurance from Facebook that it will be able to respond to this legislation from a workforce management perspective. Last week, the vice-president of integrity at Facebook said on his blog:

To address this challenge, we’ve built a global network of more than 80 independent fact-checkers ... When they rate something as false, we reduce its distribution so fewer people see it.

That is 80 out of 52,000 employees worldwide or 0.15% of the workforce who are currently tasked with fact checking. I am quite concerned that this law will place additional responsibility on Facebook to monitor political advertising. That is money being spent by political parties and politicians to shape and influence democracy so this is extremely serious. I seek an assurance from Facebook that it will be able to respond appropriately and that it will be able to flex its workforce management plans so that it not just reduces content that is illegal but removes it.

I would like to pick up on a question asked by my colleague, Senator John Cummins. Perhaps Mr. Ó Broin might shed some light on the matter. The Senator asked about Facebook page managers. The example was given of a page with 11 Irish managers, seven managers from the UK, two from Serbia and one from Germany. It would be helpful if Mr. Ó Broin indicated what Facebook managers can do with political pages. Can they administrate discussions on the forum? Can they post on behalf of people or are they in control of advertising?