Mr. Jeremy Godfrey:

It has not worked in the past, which is the reason we have these new laws. The Digital Services Act came into force and became fully applicable on 17 February this year. Our role came into force on that date. I do not want to create the impression that things are going to be suddenly marvellous but is about getting the platforms to do better. That is not something which we can say will happen overnight but the guidelines that I talked about are very good and comprehensive. If the platforms follow them, they will make a difference. The Deputy asked whether they are enforceable and who will enforce them. The guidelines are issued under the Digital Services Act as expectations from the European Commission as to how the big platforms will deliver on their obligation to mitigate the risks to electoral integrity and civic discourse. The enforcement of that obligation is one for the European Commission. It is its exclusive competence and it applies not just to the platforms in Ireland. It also applies to Snapchat, the European headquarters of which is in the Netherlands and to Telegram, the European headquarters of which is in Belgium.

That is why this is important. It should be a pan-European approach. As the Deputy said, any enforcement action will follow the elections. However, he prospect of the enforcement action should be something that creates an incentive for the platforms to do better on matters such as the speed at which they remove content and the speed at which they act. In the guidelines, that is highlighted as an important aspect.

The Deputy also talked about the severe impact that online discourse, hate and threats have on participation in political life. That is certainly very severe. It particularly affects women in politics and people from minority groups. Last year, I gave evidence to the task force on safer participation in public life. It is quite clear that is an issue. One of the things we highlighted is that there is now, under the DSA, an obligation on the platforms to have a mechanism to allow people to flag content that is illegal. Some of the threats that female politicians get are arguably illegal under Irish and other law. The platforms not only must have a mechanism to flag that content but they have to act on those flags in a timely manner. Under the DSA, there is also a mechanism for trusted flaggers. We are keen to engage in that regard. One of the things we said to the task force on participation in public life was that groups that represent candidates or politicians might become trusted flaggers. A trusted flagger has a kind of fast lane. When it raises a concern or flags something on the platforms, they have to prioritise the issue and deal with it more quickly.

In answer to the Deputy's general question, things are bad. Laws and regulation obligations can make things better. Those will not be overnight panaceas and will take time. The guidelines I talked about are a very good starting point. It is going to be important for the platforms to do what they need to do and to engage with the civil society groups, to fact check and to engage with electoral authorities. Our role is to co-ordinate that locally and to assist the European Commission in any enforcement action or evaluation and enforcement it might wish to take. I take the Deputy's point that this is a serious problem. We have finally got some laws and regulation obligations to address it. We will be moving from a situation where a big improvement is needed in what the platforms do. We hope we will see an improvement for the European elections and further improvements beyond. I will ask Ms Comey to talk about media literacy.