Results 6,061-6,080 of 9,252 for speaker:Jim O'Callaghan
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Online Harassment and Harmful Communications: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)
Jim O'Callaghan: I thank our guests for attending. Just so that they are aware of what we are doing, we will ultimately produce a report on the issue of online harassment and harmful communications. Obviously, we will make recommendations on legislative changes, but we are not limited to that, since it is not as though we are a legislative group. I agree with virtually everything Deputy Brophy stated. A...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Online Harassment and Harmful Communications: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)
Jim O'Callaghan: Our law makes provision in this regard but, unfortunately, the woman or girl in that situation is probably not aware of that. If she wants to invoke the law, she has to go to a court where she will have to reveal her identity. She will have to describe the events that took place so there will probably be a report about in the newspaper, which would put her off. Does Ms Counihan agree?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Online Harassment and Harmful Communications: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)
Jim O'Callaghan: I am sorry to interrupt but I will be looking at the criminal aspects of this later. What happened to that woman should be criminalised but in terms of any civil remedy, at present her only option lies with our privacy laws. In that context, who has breached her privacy?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Online Harassment and Harmful Communications: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)
Jim O'Callaghan: Does Ms Counihan agree that if the images are posted on a social media site, the social media company itself has also breached her privacy?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Online Harassment and Harmful Communications: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)
Jim O'Callaghan: If those photographs were published in a national newspaper, then the newspaper would be liable for breaching her privacy. Part of the problem is that technology companies do not believe they are publishers. A newspaper is obviously a publisher but technology companies claim that they are not publishers but are servicing their communities. There are online communities and the companies are...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Online Harassment and Harmful Communications: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)
Jim O'Callaghan: Say it is an adult, a woman over 18-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Online Harassment and Harmful Communications: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)
Jim O'Callaghan: Do our guests agree that the law should be changed to criminalise the type of behaviour I outlined in the example?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Online Harassment and Harmful Communications: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)
Jim O'Callaghan: Who does Ms Counihan think is the offender in terms of that prospective offence?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Online Harassment and Harmful Communications: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)
Jim O'Callaghan: Let us take the example again. If the images were published in a newspaper and they related to a child, the newspaper would be criminally liable, would it not?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Online Harassment and Harmful Communications: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)
Jim O'Callaghan: It would be extremely difficult to hold a social media company criminally liable for the posting online of an intimate photograph when what makes it criminal is the fact that consent was not given by the woman in the photograph.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Online Harassment and Harmful Communications: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)
Jim O'Callaghan: To go back to the example I gave earlier, let us say the ex-partner posts the intimate images online without the woman's consent but does so from an anonymous social media account. At present, is there any mechanism, other than An Garda Síochána going to court or to the social media company, for identifying the person who committed the offence?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Online Harassment and Harmful Communications: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)
Jim O'Callaghan: If one looks at it from a civil point of view, the woman's privacy has been breached. If one looks at it from a criminal law point of view, if we introduce a new offence then the criminal law would have been breached. It seems to me that the mechanism to give effect to her remedies and criminal liability is an online regulator. If we look at it in the civil law context, the woman should be...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Online Harassment and Harmful Communications: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)
Jim O'Callaghan: In fairness, from the social media company's point of view, there is a benefit in having an online regulator in that instance because it means the company is spared the expense of being brought to court. It is informed through an efficient mechanism at an early stage that there was no consent for these intimate images to be online. If the company does not comply with that, then civil...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Online Harassment and Harmful Communications: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)
Jim O'Callaghan: Feel free, if anyone else would like to come in on the discussion.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Online Harassment and Harmful Communications: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)
Jim O'Callaghan: I agree with Mr. Church. To return to the example I gave, what Professor Carthy suggested in his paper would probably have a significant impact in deterring the woman's ex-partner from posting the images because, under the professor's proposal, he would have to disclose his identity and she would be able to identify who it was. She would still have the difficulty of disclosing her identity,...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Online Harassment and Harmful Communications: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)
Jim O'Callaghan: What would their response be to Professor Carthy's proposal that only a person who identified himself or herself could establish a social media account with them?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Online Harassment and Harmful Communications: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)
Jim O'Callaghan: I thank everyone for the answers, but on the term "harmful communications", we must also be careful that we do not include within it issues which are considerably less serious than the example I gave to Ms Counihan. Where does one draw the line? Obviously, people should be entitled to say they hate Fianna Fáil and Fianna Fáil politicians.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Online Harassment and Harmful Communications: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)
Jim O'Callaghan: That is rich coming from a Shinner. Where does one draw the line? There is an element of subjectivity in the definition of harmful communications.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Online Harassment and Harmful Communications: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)
Jim O'Callaghan: Do they?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Online Harassment and Harmful Communications: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)
Jim O'Callaghan: If there was somebody in a house in Dublin last night saying he could not stand Jim O'Callaghan, am I entitled to know that?