Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I thank the witnesses for their presentation. Facebook is a very profitable global corporation that has a huge say in respect of social media and with regard to how people think and communicate across the globe. The company has a community, as the witnesses call it, of over 2 billion. Its headquarters are here in Dublin, presumably because it is able to make use of transfer pricing and various mechanisms to offset its tax against, for example, research and development. Ireland has been known for helping global corporations to portray what are actually not their real profits. A company will already have priced away some of its profit but actually portrays much of it as expenses and pays a great deal less tax than would be the case in other countries. Having its main office in Dublin is really important to Facebook in the context of being able to avail of all of this.

Facebook has made massive profits out of people's personal data. While the witnesses have said that they are sorry and that mistakes have been made, there is a big list in front of them regarding all the matters about which they have been asked by the Chair and other members as to why or how particular things happened. It is very difficult for political representatives such as ourselves to trust the witnesses, particularly in the context of both the company's record and the sudden Damascene conversion that has occurred. Our guests have indicated that the company is not going to allow certain things to happen again, that it will ensure that there is full transparency and that data will never be used or abused in the way it has been in the past. It is really difficult for any of us to accept that at face value.

Although it was not in their original submission, I welcome the fact that the witnesses have announced that Facebook will roll out the transparency tools to users in Ireland on 25 April next. The implications of the misuse of people's personal data in the political context of the referendum on the eighth amendment of the Constitution and abortion rights could still be very big indeed. Advertising companies can prey on people's attitudes and their sexuality. There is a great deal of information that people still do not realise Facebook and others can gain about them just because they are advertising stuff. Political advertising in this regard is totally unregulated at present but it will be regulated in the very near future, just in time for the referendum on 25 May. I welcome the fact that Facebook is going to allow transparency tools to be used in Ireland and I think it should do so tomorrow rather than on 25 April. What is happening now indicates that the company recognises that there is a problem with political advertising and the way data is used to manipulate people's political ideas and responses, particularly if they respond to shocking images, are sensitive to certain images, etc. I would like the witnesses to comment on that matter. Do they recognise it as a problem? Why did the company suddenly decide to allow the transparency tools to be rolled out - there is no mention of this in the original submission - a few weeks prior to the referendum? What changed its mind? Has Facebook been coming under pressure? Why has it decided to roll out the tools not just in Canada but also here?

Many of the questions I was going to ask have already been posed. It should be noted that our concern is that a former key employee of Cambridge Analytica is being used by the "No" side of the referendum campaign to do political advertising for them. That has implications and gives rise to concern regarding the independence of that campaign.