Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I greatly appreciate the opportunity to speak in support of this extremely important motion. I thank the Minister for bringing to the House following yesterday's Cabinet meeting. In combination with the hate crime Bill and that is due to be published this summer the Minister has clearly showed her leadership on an issue that is in that always been a nasty part of our society, as has been alluded to quite clearly by Deputy Howlin. However, it has taken an edge in recent years because while society has become more accessible it has allowed people to engage in the sort of hate speech at a level not previously seen.

The need for a common EU approach is obvious because the world is a much smaller place. We regularly see disinformation and misinformation campaigns with the level of hatred in one country exported to another member state. This has been quite pronounced in debates in recent years. These include the Brexit discussion, the rule-of-law crisis and the refugee-migration crisis. It has certainly been very stark and it would be remiss of me not to mention it. In recent weeks following the brutal invasion of Ukraine by Russia we see that part of Vladimir Putin's regime of hybrid warfare is hate speech and the campaign of disinformation that is infecting all of our lives. It is infecting all our tablets and devices.

Yesterday when I was posting a tweet, as we all do, I went to use the hashtag, #IstandwithUkraine and the first suggested tag was #IstandwithPutin. I struggle to believe this is a popular hashtag in Ireland. Why is Twitter's algorithm pushing these messages? While we are passing this extremely important motion and there will be related legislation, there still remains the absolute abdication of responsibility by social media companies, in particular when it comes to regulating this area. Our traditional print media have very defined rules. Our National Union of Journalists abides by a very strict code. However, increasingly social media are becoming the Wild West of hate speech.

Anyone can say what they like. Not to make it personal, but officially I am ranked as the sixth most abused politician in the Dáil on Twitter. It is not a badge of honour, it is not particularly pleasant, and while we are all grown-ups who can deal with it, it is not very nice reading for my wife or my siblings, who perhaps do not get that the comments, which are largely sectarian, are aimed and do not always come from this State. When we see this particular disinformation campaign and see how it creeps into mainstream discussion and how people are saying it is because there is a Nazi regime in Ukraine and that sort of approach, it comes to the very importance of ensuring not only that we have a common EU approach but also, crucially, that this jurisdiction leads. We are proudly the European headquarters for so many of the digital companies, social media companies, tech companies and many of the other companies that enable such wonderful things from sharing holiday pictures to reconnecting with old friends to accessing real-time information. Crucially, however, they also provide a platform for hate speech that simply is incomparable to the graffiti or the snide remarks we would have seen a generation ago. They continue to go completely unregulated.

Deputy Howlin is absolutely correct that passing this motion is a welcome start. I hope to see it get unanimous support in this House, but it is just a start. It needs to be accompanied by real legislation. Even today, despite European sanctions against Russian media operations, despite the banning of RT, Sputnik and everyone else, there still are proactive accounts flooding Europe with disinformation about the war in Ukraine. That is hate speech, it is wrong and it is why this motion is so important, but equally, it is why the related legislation is so important.

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