Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 24 September 2024
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government
Electoral Arrangements to Protect Democracy and Ballot Integrity: Discussion
3:00 pm
Mr. Barry Ryan:
The recourse, of course, is in the ballot box but content moderation is difficult in this space. In the white heat of an electoral event, content moderation is a space the Electoral Commission has said it does not particularly want to get into.
With regard to Part 5, we have attempted to refine the definitions to give a role to the Electoral Commission in the space of electoral process, misinformation and disinformation, so clearly things not right in the electoral process. I think Mr. O'Leary has mentioned a case in Germany where people were encouraged to sign their ballot paper and they would be entered into a draw. Clearly, then it becomes invalid. That kind of clear misinformation or disinformation designed to undermine the electoral and democratic processes is what we are attempting to address and give a role to the Electoral Commission in regulating.
Maybe Mr. O'Leary might wish to speak about his own framework in that.