Mr. Mark Malone:

There are a few things. It is probably worth noting some of the commitments the companies have already made. Ms McDonald referenced our role working with the code of conduct and countering illegal hate speech. In December 2022, one of the things that was agreed was:

IT companies and [civil society organisations] will aim to further intensify their cooperation through regular meetings, training opportunities and roundtable discussions on topics such as specific manifestations of [hate] ...

That agreement was made in December 2022 at the height of the first cycle of anti-migrant mobilisations in Ireland. We have not heard from anybody – Facebook, YouTube, Google or Twitter-X. In fairness, TikTok regularly reaches out and tries to aim to fulfil the agreements made within that, but the other organisations have not. We carry the burden. We are trusted flaggers of in respect of all these organisations. We know their terms and conditions and what they set out themselves. We see they regularly fail to live up to expectation. We also see them fail to live up to the commitments they make in the broader sense.

The thing that is concerning is we see a direction of travel. We see what has happened with X and its ownership of one year. What happens if these global products have nefarious owners over a sustained period? What does that do to the democratic process and to our societies? This is not a game. There is an economic imperative for Elon Musk to have a Trump win because of the numerous cases against his other businesses - in the context of regulation - that will impinge his profit line. What happens when there are nefarious actors? There needs to be structure, shape and power embanked in regulation and whatever forms of communication so these companies cannot make agreements and commitments and walk away, and then there is nothing. I cannot think of a single instance beyond small fines that do not have any bite at all where any of these companies have been held to account for harms they do in our societies, particularly minoritised communities.

As was mentioned, YouTube literally monetised white nationalists in Ireland. People are able to pay and donate to white nationalists in Ireland, and YouTube gets a 30% cut. The money is nothing, but, on principle-----