Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I imagine it was. I was not really apologising to the Minister of State personally. In any case, it is probably not the most elegant word to use but I included it to reinforce the point I am trying to make. The role of the trusted flagger is massively important and it is one of the most important roles outlined in this legislation. At its core, the trusted flagger will ensure a safe, predictable and trusted online environment and report on the dissemination of illegal content online as well as reporting content which causes societal risks, such as the dissemination of misinformation, and never has it been more important that we have tools to tackle misinformation and disinformation.

These roles could potentially have an impact on freedom of expression. The role that will be conferred on the trusted flagger is an exceptionally important one. People have a constitutional right to freely express their convictions and opinions, but it is qualified under the Constitution and it can be limited in the interests of public order and morality. There is a need to ensure entities with a - I will use the word again - partisan agenda or an agenda that is intent on shaping or controlling content to suit their own agenda will not be allowed to do that and will be disqualified.

The online space should be one where people can connect freely, where ideas can be shared and where they can engage in robust debate, but it is important this is done in a way that ensures safety and guards against disinformation. We cannot have an entity one arm of which is benefiting from the dissemination of disinformation or misinformation - I suppose it is disinformation if they are doing it on purpose – and another arm of which is also applying for the status of trusted flagger. If a vested interest managed to obtain the position of trusted flagger, it could potentially be abused.

These are people who will be responsible for monitoring and flagging issues in regard to the online space. We know there is potential for massive manipulation of online media. We do not want to run the risk that somebody who might benefit from disinformation getting into the public domain would also be a trusted flagger because that person also benefits from using their trusted flagger status to alert a person who may not be of the same views. There is no point in pretending that everybody agrees, and we literally work in a place that is designed to facilitate people who do not agree in coming to some class of an agreement. The online space is no different. There will be people there who are partisan actors who have an agenda and who, if they have the status of trusted flagger, could potentially use that to silence somebody or another entity with opposing views.

I spoke on Second Stage about the concerns I had with how the commission was using the legislation to push online platforms to censor content in support of people in Palestine. I am not breaking any confidences here, and we have seen that. If the legislation is to be fair, balanced and workable, it has to be transparent. The purpose of this amendment is to ensure that transparency is there.