Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for attending. I have three questions on areas of interest to me. The first relates to content moderation, which is a huge area in the context of online safety. What led TikTok to decide to keep content moderation in house? Why does Facebook think it is acceptable to outsource content moderation? What are Facebook's thoughts regarding practices whereby employees of the outsourced services must sign non-disclosure agreements about their work? When we discuss things such as online safety, it is very hard to get a clear picture of what is happening if some of the people at the coalface are unable to talk about it.

Last week, the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, ISPCC, was before the committee. It stated that online platforms are effectively facilitating bullying because nothing is done when complaints are made or that there is a really long period between when complaints about content are made and action being taken. The ISPCC gave the example of a mother trying to get content about her child taken down. It took months, if not over a year, for that content to be removed. What do the witnesses say in respect of the claim that the platforms are effectively facilitating bullying because it takes so long to get action on complaints?

My final question is for TikTok. What is it doing at an algorithm level to prevent harm? What are its engineers or operations doing with the algorithm? I am an out LGBT community member. I follow LGBT TikTok accounts, that is what I am interested in. Transphobic and anti-trans material is pushed at me all the time. I report that material. What is TikTok doing because it seems to me that the algorithm is not working. I do not want transphobic content, I am a member of the LGBT community. What machine learning or training is being done to mitigate harm?