Mr. Ciarán O'Connor:

I thank the Senator for his question. The struggle with tackling or combating disinformation, as it is viewed under the DSA for example, is that it is legal but harmful. Platform guidelines and platform moderation techniques are based around trying to find that balance between what is legitimate speech and what is potentially harmful speech. Disinformation goes hand in hand with hate speech as well. Falsehoods, particularly targeting marginalised groups, are often used to create polarising narratives. We have seen multiple instances where falsehoods about asylum seekers or migrants are spread online that often result in vigilante-style violence. Here we see smears, rumours and speculation leading to offline violence. Our interest is on platform accountability and the downstream effect of objectionable, potentially hateful, speech. I think that is it for the moment.