Ms Susan Moss:

On the Cathaoirleach's point about the algorithm, it is important to clarify the algorithm on TikTok - each system is different - is driven by a user's own interests and actions. That is, whether someone likes a video, watches it, skips it or indicate they are not interested in it. It is not driven by the popularity of the comments, shares or likes because TikTok is driven by what we call a content graph and not a social graph.

Around the algorithm more generally, it is definitely important that we as a company offer choice to our community and we do that in three ways. First, we offer a non-personalised feed. That is our obligation under the Digital Services Act. That means the content is not based on users' interactions. The second thing we do is offer a feed to our younger users that is entirely dedicated to STEM. It is endorsed by our Government here and features the Department of Health SciComm Collective account which features young Irish scientists explaining complex themes. The content is verified for its age-appropriateness by an NGO and also for its accuracy. The third feed we offer to our community is to ensure they have the ability to refresh their feed. They can refresh the TikTok feed and will be served TikTok as if they had just joined for the very first time.

I accept the Cathaoirleach's point. There is an inherent challenge in all recommender systems in ensuring the breadth of content we are showing to young people is not too narrow and repetitive. There is content that you see in isolation may not be violative. We definitely recognise seeing too much of that is not a good thing, whether that is extreme fitness or content around dieting. It is not good for anyone's self-esteem. What we do in that instance is use what we call a dispersion mechanism. We try to disperse a filter bubble from happening, so users see a variety of content that reflects their variety of interests. They are some of the approaches we take.