Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I admire the Deputy's optimism. I have a few comments. First, we already have different rules on non-online advertising. For example, we know we cannot buy radio time or TV time but we can buy newspaper time and in many cases local newspapers would go out of business if it was not for the regular political adverts that are placed by Members of the Dáil, both inside and outside of election time. Therefore, if there is to be a standardised rule then theoretically it should apply to everybody. There would not be many Members of the Dáil who would argue that we should not be allowed to advertise in local newspapers. I am a firm believer that those adverts in local newspapers do not get you a single vote but they keep people in employment and keep newspapers up and running. Those newspapers have an important function and that is why many of us continue those advertisements.

I want to ask the Deputy proposing the amendment to consider the following issue: online advertising is cheap and the ability of people to boost Facebook posts, which could often be organic content rather than sophisticated ads, is something that gives small, non-party and small party candidates access to a way of promoting their work that they otherwise would not have. I am not in favour of an outright ban on online advertising. I fully agree with Deputy McAuliffe that the weakness of the regulation of online advertising and platforms is evident in this Bill. Interestingly, none of the advocates for greater transparency or accountability in social media who came to the committee called for an outright ban. They had a range of good and interesting policy recommendations on transparency and accountability etc. and the Government would do well to go back to those and reconsider them. We also have to deal with the issue of spending limits. While the spending limits do not change inside the election period, there are spending limits outside of it. It is the same with posters and you will see all sorts of posters going up all over the place three months before the election that are allegedly for political meetings. Those posters are not for political meetings at all; they are just election posters by another name.

I do not support the amendment but I support Deputy McAuliffe's concern that we could have a much more advanced set of regulations for online platforms. We do not need to wait for the European Union regulations; in fact we should move much further. There are certain activities like microtargeting that should be illegal inside and outside of the election period. They should not just be illegal for political campaigning but for any kind of advertising. It is acceptable when you open a newspaper and there is commercial content that is labelled as an advertisement. We know about that but nobody knows when they have been microtargeted, regardless of whether it is in the commercial or the political world. While I do not support the amendment, I support Deputy McAuliffe's call for the Department, the Minister and his colleagues to seriously look at this. The one message we got clearly from the advocacy experts, who made an important presentation, was that the technology is accelerating at such a speed that not only do we have to play catch-up but we do not even know where things are going. They made a strong case that the electoral commission should have the ability, in real time, to start to understand and make recommendations to the Government, which could then be acted on quickly by way of regulation to primary legislation. If we fail to grapple with this now, during elections at some point in the future there will be serious points of contention over our failure to regulate and who has or has not done what on online advertising. While I do not support the amendment, I support the intention and argument from the Government to come back on this at the earliest possible opportunity.