Mr. Tom Murphy:

The great thing about the setting of the new commission is that it creates the capability to be prescriptive from the get-go about how social media and online publishers behave. It creates an ability to be prescriptive about what they have to do in regard to complaints and dealing with and taking down abusive material. Unfortunately, I do not think the proposals we are dealing with today address those issues in any great way at all. They are almost two separate and distinct things. The commission will not be able to deal with tweets, retweets and things like that unless they fall into certain categories that would come under the definition of online abuse. This touches on what Senator Ruane asked. The role of the commission and the proposals we are looking at are separate issues. However, the great thing about being able to be prescriptive is the capacity it gives to direct how the bigger entities that run the social media organisations behave from here on and to direct the penalties that may be applicable in certain circumstances when they do not abide by the rules that are set.