Mr. Jeremy Godfrey:

To run through some of the Deputy's questions, he asked about our role and how, if we are not the judge of every piece of content online and if we are not making decisions, that can make a difference. The important thing is that it is the platforms that need to up their game. On foot of the Digital Services Act and the establishment of Coimisiún na Meán, we are moving from an era of self-regulation where platforms could decide for themselves what they wanted to do to one of statutory regulation, where they have obligations. It is about getting the platforms systemically to address misinformation and disinformation so that they are the ones who identify it and they are the ones with trusted fact checkers who can point out things that are incorrect and they are the ones that can label the information and direct people towards good sources of information. It is very important that we do not interfere with legitimate political expression or with legitimate political debate. It is right that we are not the censors ourselves. These guidelines are about the oversight of what platforms are doing. It is what the platforms are supposed to do in order to deal with misinformation and disinformation. I can see the Deputy shaking his head-----