Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Senator must draw to a conclusion. We come to me. I will begin by thanking our guests for being in front of us. This meeting was planned for October, as our guests know, but was moved back for one reason or another. I appreciate their coming before the committee. I, like all of my colleagues, am disappointed that X will not participate in this public engagement in the same way the other companies are engaging. We appreciate that engagement.

It is always interesting to be the last speaker at a meeting because so much has been teased through. To back up what Senator Carrigy has said, I hope our guests will take away how delicate and fragile our democracy is at the moment, and the impact their companies have on that fragility. We saw that in the most explosive, if people will forgive the pun, and exposed way on 23 November. While I accept our guests are saying their companies are doing a certain amount, as they asserted in their presentations, there is no doubt in my mind that the technology available was an enabler that helped to gather those crowds in our capital city in a short space of time. Everybody else, including the Garda and, arguably, Coimisiún na Meán, were trying to play catch-up. That technology enabled the people who went out to cause destruction and mayhem on 23 November. It was organised through WhatsApp groups and on various other platforms. I certainly feel that enough is not being done to curb that behaviour. I must say that. Enough is not being done to curb that behaviour.

I will also make a comment that relates to what Senator Carrigy is trying to extrapolate. I hope that more is done. Our democracy is in question. We talk about trying to get women involved in politics. I have no doubt the behaviour we are talking about affects the gentlemen within this organisation and in public life. However, we are trying to meet quotas and get women involved in politics but will have no chance of doing so if platforms continue to allow insults and personal attacks. They are not just coming from fake accounts or robots. They are coming from people we know on the ground and who live in our communities. Those insults and attacks do not breach community standards. The community standards are horrifying when you are exposed to them and start to dig into them.

Mr. Ó Broin said that Meta's community standards are continually evolving and that it is engaging with its European partners and others globally. In the past three, four or five years, can he identify any marked difference in what it considers a breach of community standards? How has that tightened up to protect citizens over the past four or five years? Mr. Ó Broin mentioned that Meta has evolving guidelines around community standards. Can he point to anything tangible over the past three or four years to show that those guidelines protect people?