Dr. John Evans:

In Europe we have charted a course around trying to balance freedom of expression with curtailments of what we can do online. The US is on one path. Other, totalitarian, regimes are on another path.

The whole idea of the DSA was to try to create a system with checks and balances that walks the line between those two polar opposites. There will be a degree of needing to work with this for a while to see how it works, in particular, around the risk assessment and the commission's role in those four areas where we are trying to mitigate at a systemic level where harms can occur. On the rapid dissemination of illegal content and, probably more to the Deputy's point, the risk to fundamental rights and to political processes, we will be watching very closely to see how that goes this year. When we listen to EU officials speak when someone asks them what "good" looks like, they will often say the platforms did not play a negative part in European elections and national elections in Europe this year. That will be the litmus test for how well the system will work this year. I do not know whether that fully answers the Deputy's question.

On the question of algorithmic biases, whether we have the capacity to do that and what our line on profiling within the algorithms is, with regard to the profiling question, apart from children it is also not allowed to target individuals based on certain characteristics, for example, sexual orientation or religion. Mr. Kenny might come in with more examples. There are other categories that someone cannot be targeted for online.

On the capacity issue around the algorithms and developing the expertise, I spoke a bit earlier about the structure of the organisation. I spoke about the external facing divisions and I mentioned very much in passing that Coimisiún na Meán will develop a data and technology division as well. We have hired one director so far who is somebody who is expert in data analytics. In due course, we will hire two more directors there, one with responsibility for the technology side and who will, therefore, have expertise with algorithms, and then a third director who will be focused on digital forensics. Together, those three directors will work and have their staff. We want to develop a centre of excellence inside the organisation. Ireland has a very outsized role with respect to this so it is very important we start thinking like a big regulator in this respect and develop that capacity ourselves. Of course we will be able to link in with other regulators across Europe. Some of the other regulators are doing important work in this area. There is this centre for algorithmic transparency where we see a lot of the leading edge experts in this area working for that and helping inform policy. That is something we will want to link in with in due course as well.

On the question of shallow consents, I do not have a good answer for that one. It is more of a data protection issue, generally, but I can look into that more when I go back to the office, if that is okay.