Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. It has been a very informative session and I thank them for taking time out to be with us. My question is general in its approach and is for all the witnesses. It is to get an understanding of their feelings on the Bill in its current general scheme format and the provisions they would like to see in order to provide a clear legal obligation to remove harmful content on foot of an appropriate complaints system. In his submission, Professor O'Mahony referenced international approaches, including in the UK and Germany. The latter adopted the Network Enforcement Act to remove harmful content within 24 hours of notification of a complaint and, basically, to remove any unlawful content within seven days. We have seen that France recently proposed fines of up to 4% of online providers' global revenue for repeat offenders. A number of other international legislative measures have been enacted and Australia has established the eSafety Commissioner. How do the witnesses feel the Bill needs to be strengthened in this area?

With regard to misinformation, would the witnesses foresee platforms using fact checkers and how would the future shape of this be implemented? We all know different platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, use different forms in terms of how they police misinformation.

I would like to hear the witnesses' understanding of it.