Ms Niamh McDonald:

Since November 2022, we have seen significant anti-migrant violence, arson attacks and riots in Ireland. That has coincided with the drop in trust and safety teams across all social media platforms. In our work doing rapid response, the nub of where we normally start to find things is on online. Then it is the amplification. It comes back to the recommender system. Trust and safety teams are extraordinarily important for removing content as it is happening, but the recommender system produces that content in the first place, spreads it and it lands in your phone. There is a two-pronged approach. We cannot rely on social media companies regulating themselves. We have had these companies for the past 20 years and they have not created that sense of comfort for us until now. Otherwise, we would not need to be sitting in this room right now.