Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 4 July 2023
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality
General Scheme of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill: Discussion (Resumed)
Mr. Michael Kealey:
I was going to make the point that one of the issues that NewsBrands Ireland and what we call traditional media have is that there is an uneven playing pitch at the moment. We find ourselves in a position where we are expected to check everything that goes into a newspaper or on a broadcast and everything that goes out on live radio, including local radio stations and the like. Yet, none of that applies to social media. They are currently in the position of saying that it is not their fault, that they are just a telephone company and that this is what they do. We do not accept that for a moment. There are algorithms that can determine whether a person hovered over a piece before reading it. They can actually put algorithms in place to ensure that this is done. This has led to a coarsening of public discourse. The social media companies are not responding to that. I would be very surprised if every single public representative around this table has not been the subject of gruesome attacks on social media that would never be permitted in the traditional media.
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