Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The effect of amendment No. 147 would be to insert another category of harmful online content regarding disinformation. I do not propose to accept the amendment for a number of reasons. Disinformation and false information intended to mislead is being tackled on an EU-wide basis through a number of mechanisms, including the Digital Services Act, political agreement on which was agreed on Friday, 22 April. The Government has decided that Coimisiún na Meán will be the digital service co-ordinator which is the primary regulator under the Digital Services Act. My colleague, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment has led Ireland's negotiations on the Digital Services Act.

The EU code of practice on disinformation is a Commission initiative which has involved a range of online platforms, leading social networks, advertisers and advertising industry players to sign up to self-regulatory standards to fight disinformation. It is the Commission's intention that the code will evolve into a co-regulatory instrument under the Digital Services Act.

In addition, the Commission has also established the European Digital Media Observatory, which has a hub in DCU and which has been tasked with monitoring the implementation of the code. While I note the intent of the amendment, the matter will be addressed by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and his Department in the context of the legislation necessary to give effect to the implementation of the Digital Services Act in Ireland. I do not believe it would be useful to cut across this work at this stage.

Senators will be aware that in March the Government decided that once established under the Bill, Coimisiún na Meán would act as the primary regulator termed the digital service co-ordinator under the Digital Services Act. It made the decision in light of the clear synergies between the objectives and the approaches of Coimisiún na Meán and the digital services co-ordinator, including taking a systemic approach to dealing with online safety and platform regulation and similar resourcing needs and expertise for implementation and enforcement.

The Digital Services Act is still undergoing negotiation on a number of technical matters. The final text of the regulation is not available. Should the code of practice on disinformation evolve into a co-regulatory instrument under the Digital Services Act, as proposed by the European Commission, I would expect that Coimisiún na Meán would have a role to play in its capacity as the digital services co-ordinator.

There is a very specific problem with disinformation which is designed to influence the results of elections and referendums as these processes are at the heart of our democracy. The Minister for Housing, Local Government, and Heritage asked the Attorney General to prepare proposals for inclusion in the Electoral Reform Bill around the protection of our electoral process against disinformation, with a view to bringing amendments to that Bill which, I understand, is due to commence Committee Stage in the Dáil next week.