Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

During Taoiseach's questions yesterday, I said to the Taoiseach that democracies across the world are struggling to deal with the problem of fake news spread by social media, often by anonymous third parties. Last weekend, the actor and comedian, Sacha Baron Cohen, accused the Silicon six, the big six social media companies, of spreading "hate, conspiracies and lies" by facilitating this material online. Specifically, he said that the Silicon six determine much of the information that the world sees and collectively amount to "the greatest propaganda machine in history". When we reflect upon that, it is a reflection of truth. He said that this is resulting in a type of "ideological imperialism" where "unelected" companies "were imposing their vision on the rest of the world", unaccountable to any government, and outside of the reach of most law.

I said to the Taoiseach yesterday that we have to defend our democracy. Our democracy is not for sale. We must have strong regulation of not only what goes on the Internet but also of political campaigning and advertising. We need to urgently update our laws to ensure that money spent on clear and obvious lies and disinformation can be counteracted and not allowed to contaminate our elections, as they manifestly have influenced elections in other jurisdictions in recent times. When I asked the Taoiseach about this yesterday, he seemed to be unconcerned whether the necessary law would pass before next year's general election. I believe it is of vital importance that we collectively regulate in this area because once an election is in process, it is too late to try to regulate or control an external influence on our democratic system. Has the Taoiseach had time since yesterday to reflect on this matter? Will he work with us, collectively, to have laws in place before the next general election?

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