Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We need a debate about the accountability of social media companies. I think everyone is aware that Meta has just been fined a record amount of €1.2 billion for breaches relating to the transfer of personal data, the largest ever EU privacy fine.

The Date Protection Commissioner disagreed with the decision in this regard but was overruled by other EU countries. This comes in the wake of the horrific attack on a child in Navan, County Meath, a video of which was shared millions of times across multiple social media platforms. Many people are asking when social media companies will be held accountable by means of sanctions like that just imposed on Meta for the sharing of content on their platforms of such dreadful abuse. I am conscious that we have seen the very welcome appointment of the Online Safety Commissioner. We heard the very welcome announcement in recent days that Government is holding an advertising campaign to remind people of the law on sharing images, which was, of course, based on legislation introduced by Deputy Howlin that was inspired by Coco's Law. We need a debate on accountability of social media companies. When will the online safety framework fully come into effect?

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