Mr. Ciarán O'Connor:

I thank committee members for the opportunity to contribute to this discussion. My colleague Aoife Gallagher and I represent the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, an independent non-profit founded in 2006 to counter online hate, extremism and disinformation globally. Ms Gallagher and I lead the ISD's research in Ireland and we were invited to contribute to the development of the national counter-disinformation strategy. Our work has documented the spread of falsehoods during the pandemic, homophobic smear campaigns targeting the LGBTQ community, including some politicians, intimidation and harassment, campaigns targeting librarians and teachers, and hateful narratives targeting asylum seekers with false claims that often result in violence.

This activity has only increased in recent years, as documented in a series of reports we released in November 2023, days before the riots in Dublin. Social media platforms, driven by business models that prioritise engagement over safety, routinely promote sensationalist, extreme or false content, rapidly spreading it to vast audiences. This makes ongoing monitoring essential to tracking the evolving dynamics of disinformation. Ireland's research sector in this field is still nascent, so such work remains enormously resource-intensive. As conspiracy networks boomed during the pandemic, we saw a growing intersection of misinformation and disinformation, hate and extremist communities online. Permissive digital environments have resulted in blurred lines between a broad ecosystem of online movements and the emergence of an increasingly hybridised threat landscape.

The ISD's research has evidenced three major challenges as regards social media: platforms are inconsistent in enforcing their own rules; platforms' own products and algorithmic systems have been found to recommend disinformation and hateful content; and platforms are now actively shuttering data access for researchers, making assessment harder. To resolve the information crises experienced in recent years, these three problems must be addressed. Transparency, including the type of data access for independent researchers now mandated by the DSA, is essential for improved platform accountability. This will enable the assessment of platform moderation efforts and, indeed, the assessment of potential overmoderation of legitimate speech. While illegal content should be removed, when it comes to falsehoods, we must balance the protection of freedom of expression with protections from harm.

In 2024, our work in Ireland has tracked misinformation and disinformation targeting our democracy, including threats and violence against local election candidates and a campaign spreading false claims alleging voter fraud was rampant in Ireland, a first for this country.

Our message to conclude is that with emerging technologies like generative AI, digital threats to democracy are growing. A robust whole-of-society response is essential, one that encompasses proper regulatory oversight and enforcement, meaningful platform transparency and data access, and investment in digital literacy education to empower citizens to critically evaluate the evolving information environment. I thank the committee and we look forward to answering any questions members may have.