Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 19 May 2021
Joint Committee on Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sport and the Gaeltacht
General Scheme of the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2020: Discussion (Resumed)
Mr. Dualta Ó Broin:
If it is found to be false by our fact checker, we will put a warning screen in front of it which will say what the viewer is about to see has been found to be false by an independent fact checker. In that way, we are trying to educate and inform people about what the facts are. That is why we have the Covid-19 information hub, which contains all the authoritative information. It is not just we have done that, this is an ongoing thing. We are working with health authorities around the world, so if there is a new trend or piece of evolving content which is of concern to them, we will react to that. It is incredibly important.
WhatsApp, as an end-to-end encrypted service, is different. It falls within that category of communication service I was talking about at the outset. As an end-to-end encrypted piece, it is more difficult because it cannot be seen. Only the sender and the receiver have access to it, but there are reporting tools in place in there. We can keep taking down content, but it comes back to addressing the wider issue and working with the NGOs, the committee, school and academics. The FUSE programme is one example of that. I am sure there are other programmes out there.
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