Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am afraid I am going to challenge Mr. Herrick's and Dr. McIntyre’s assertions. They make the point that these are vague definitions around what is regarded as online harm. There are people already determining what is online harm. Facebook and Twitter have their community standards, over which we as legislators have no control. Already, we have a situation determining what can go on platforms. Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey can continue to determine what is placed on their platforms. They made a decision, with reference to the political point, on whether they would continue to allow Donald Trump to use their platforms and whether his language was harmful. Whether you agree or disagree with what Donald Trump was saying, it was Zuckerberg, Dorsey and their teams who made the decision, rather than democratic society. It is those tech giants, who, by the way, are located in Ireland not just for tax reasons but for reasons of the solid talent that is based here in Ireland.

The argument we have made is we accept we need to be clearer on defining what is meant by online harm. Certainly, in terms of hate speech, we need to be clearer. However, the current situation that exists is that those definitions are already determined by the community standards that are drawn up by Facebook and Twitter. What we have at the moment is a regime whereby Silicon Valley determines both what can appear and the rules on social media in Ireland, whereas we as legislators do not have that role. I accept this is a requirement for many states to work together on this. If, however, we look at Germany where they have the network enforcement Act, and I appreciate their legislation around hate speech is stronger, they were able to ensure that with the issue of Holocaust denial, which is very clearly defined in German law, within 24 hours harmful content should be taken down. Yes, we can wait for the Digital Services Act and, yes, we can wait for perfection, but this is a challenge we need to address. For all our flaws, I would argue that in the democratic public space, it is better to have us as legislators and regulators determining what is regarded as harmful content rather than the feudal lords, such as Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey.