Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their work and presentations. Mr. O'Keeffe spoke extensively in his opening statement about tackling disinformation and fake news. This is very apt given the day that is in it. The Facebook oversight board is set to rule today on whether Mr. Donald Trump's ban for using the Facebook platform to incite an insurrection should stand. My point applies to all social media platforms. The world will watch with interest. This development follows on from a weekend over which major sports organisations across the United Kingdom effected a total online media blackout to combat online hate speech and online racism. It is an interesting time to be discussing all these issues.

In his opening statement, Mr. O'Keeffe, whom I praise for his work in this area, said it may not be appropriate, given the scale of the regulations and the fact that the general scheme is already very significant, to include broader societal harm at this juncture. Could he elaborate on that point? Furthermore, could he elaborate on the definitions related to harmful online content? He said he is concerned with the element of the definition concerning what a reasonable person would conclude is the intention of the dissemination. Could he expand on that?

On the issue of the content levy, Mr. O'Keeffe, in keeping with considerations on resources and so forth, noted that consideration should be given to the removal or prohibition of funding for news and current affairs content, given emerging concerns in respect of disinformation. That is welcome. There is a lot of interest in the content levy among independent producers, Screen Ireland and so forth.

On the content levy, does Mr. O'Keeffe agree that the fund should only be open to applications from independent Irish producers working with broadcasters and online media services? At what percentage should the levy be set?

I thank Ms Morgan for her presentation. She spoke extensively of the work that may not fall within the remit of the Data Protection Commission but is landing on her desk because it has nowhere else to go. Of these complaints, what is the age profile of complainants? Are they under 18 years? How difficult is this? Given the lacuna that exists, how co-operative are the social medial giants in dealing with the Data Protection Commission? How swiftly do they respond when the DPC makes infringement complaints to them?