Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There are two dimensions to online defamation. There is the overt dimension where somebody who engages in online defamation is readily identifiable and then there is the covert dimension where somebody uses an alias and opens up an account with a bogus name and engages in online abuse and defamation. There are two dimensions to it which the Government needs to consider addressing in a radical manner because it is a source of huge concern. We know of the bullying of younger members of society. Ordinary decent people, who are entitled to their good name, often find themselves at an exceptional disadvantage. My Fianna Fáil colleague, Senator Thomas Byrne, had to go to the courts to get a court order to get Google to act in regard to something about him which was not true but which was available. That was not good enough. Does the Minister have plans to introduce legislation to deal with the overt and covert dimensions?

I accept that she met the Internet service providers. That was a welcome move, but they need to be in a position to act faster to acknowledge their role as a stakeholder in the act of defamation. They might not be the people who wrote it, but they are the people who are broadcasting it.

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