Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I accept the pseudonymity argument to a certain extent but I believe social media companies need to do more in respect of the trolling of accounts. I will look at the link that Mr. Costello referred me to by way of an answer to my first question, but I am concerned that it will not give me the answer I am looking for. I will come back to Mr. Costello, if that is okay, because I would like specific answers on that.

My thanks to the Facebook representative for participating today and for making the submissions. We need to recognise the big divergence between how Facebook is approaching this issue and how we are approaching it in terms of trying to protect the fairness and freedom of our electoral process. Facebook has 2.4 million users in Ireland and the company is saying there is no fact checking. The submission suggested Facebook did not want any responsibility in terms of compliance with advertising and regulatory standards for political advertising. Facebook has the tools to demonstrate and contribute to making our democracy stronger. I urge Facebook to work with us in the coming months to try to ensure that we can get the maximum out of the tools it has to enhance our democracy. I will leave it at that.