Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I oppose the amendment because it is our view the amendment seeks to add a requirement that Coimisiún na Meán would publish the reasons, as the Deputy has outlined, for a refusal to designate a vetted researcher after that decision has been made. The Deputy's amendment is grouped with amendments Nos. 30, 32 and 34, all of which relate to a requirement that Coimisiún na Meán publish reasons for refusal, termination or revocation of a trusted flagger or vetted researcher status once the decision has been made.

Designated vetted researchers can, via the digital services co-ordinator, DSC, of establishment, access data from very large platforms and search engines. This is so that they can carry out research for the purpose of contributing to both the detection, identification and understanding of systemic risks and the assessment of the adequacy efficiency and impacts of the risk mitigation measures. Publication of the reasons for a refusal or termination of an application or designation of the status of vetted researcher concerns me because I am worried it may disincentivise people from applying in the first place to become a vetted researcher. My concern is this could lead to poor outcomes.

The objective of the DSA is to make it more likely that illegal content online will be found and taken down, and trusted flaggers are an important mechanism to achieve this. We want organisations to apply for trusted flagger status. I intend, as part of this, to draw attention to the role of the trusted flagger, but I consider that publishing on the website reasons for refusing or revoking their status could disincentivise organisations from applying for that status. Coimisiún na Meán must provide the European Commission with the details of entities to which it has awarded trusted flagger status. It must also provide information about those trusted flaggers whose status has been either suspended or revoked, and the European Commission can publish that information in a public database. For somebody who has that status and loses it, the European Commission can publish the reasons. I am concerned that the amendments may discourage organisations from applying for trusted flagger status or researchers from applying to be designated as a vetted researcher and may impede the implementation of the DSA as broadly as we want to do so.