Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister spent considerable time going through the framework, whether that is the Digital Services Act, the guidelines or the powers of Coimisiún na Meán. I have spoken on this issue previously in committee, where I spoke to Coimisiún na Meán and An Coimisiún Toghcháin about their engagement with the big social media companies. It sometimes seems like a five-a-side team going up against Bayern Munich. I am not entirely sure that we have the power and frameworks to take on companies that have budgets and economies almost greater than those of countries.

As was said by my colleagues, we are all aware of the huge issues that exist in relation to the algorithms, in particular the recommender systems, which are all about keeping you online, no matter what age you are, no matter what particular issues you may have.

What keeps people online is stuff that is really unhealthy. Young girls who may have an issue in relation to food are kept in the most unhealthy of places online. We have all seen news stories come up and then searched for particular videos or footage from it. Our timeline then becomes a field of muck and absolutely brutal stuff. That is fine. We are aware that some of this is disinformation or misinformation. I would like to think a considerable number of us have developed some element of an ability to analyse. However, there are a huge number of people out there who do not necessarily have the skill sets required. That is why we also have to put serious effort into ensuring people have those capacities. We have seen it in Finland in relation to digital literacy and the idea of analysing information. When we see information we do not have to believe absolutely everything. We also realise that, unfortunately, the reason some people believe misinformation and disinformation is that they want to believe it and it emotionally resonates with them. That is something that has to be allowed for. We need to provide people with the capacity to question that.

Let us be clear. As long as it makes sense from a financial point of view for TikTok, Facebook and the entire Meta family, or anyone else for that matter, they will not be interested in taking any action that will cost them money. Deputies spoke recently about the huge geopolitical issues that exist. Unfortunately, we also have a regime in America that likes to present any type of control over the ability to say or do anything, provide any sort of information or take any action related to child safety or ensuring we do not allow huge amounts of disinformation and misinformation that could do harm to others, not only as a move against these tech companies but also as a move against free speech. We all accept the absolute necessity to protect free speech, but we also need to protect people from harmful content and brutal misinformation and disinformation. We are talking about information that can impact on people's lives. I request that we have real protections. As my colleagues said, blanket bans will not work. There will be ways found around them. It is vital we analyse whatever Australia does in order to get information but we must not blindly follow it. This is a huge issue and we need to make sure we do what is necessary.

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