Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Very good. The Deputy is multitasking, as always. Fair play to him.

I thank our guests for their contributions. Members' questions have been interesting and thought-provoking. I have two sets of questions, the first of which are for Ms Fitzpatrick and Mr. Lupton. I wish to tease out the idea of the individual complaints mechanism. As Deputy Munster correctly noted, many witnesses who have appeared before the committee and advocate groups, particularly children's rights advocates, have made repeated calls for the establishment of an individual complaints mechanism. Having spoken these groups, I have to agree with their argument, at least on the face of it. Nevertheless, we have to discuss further the practicalities of it and what resources would be needed. I understand this has been successfully established in Australia and it seems to be working. If it can be done there, I am sure there is some way we can do it here. How could such a mechanism be resourced? Ms Fitzpatrick might touch on the type of volume that applies to individual complaints. Mr. Lupton mentioned that setting up such a mechanism would be challenging but surely there could be an imaginative or creative way around that, given that children's rights activists are calling for it.

Freedom of expression is something we all advocate for. What are Dr. Docquir's views on the existing mechanisms for the removal of content? Does Article 19 believe that some content removal has been in breach of freedom of expression rights? Do social media companies sometimes go too far or not far enough? I refer in particular to what we have seen over the past 12 months in the context of Covid-19 and vaccination programmes. Some very influential Instagram and Facebook account holders, who may have several thousand followers, have gained support but they may be putting out misinformation on the vaccination programme, using terms such as "experimental" and other harmful terminology, and on the pandemic itself, suggesting it is a hoax. That is difficult for me to entertain, given the significant influence and number of followers these individuals have. Where is the balance there? Where do we go too far and where have we not gone far enough?