Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

In many areas, I have sought to strengthen the provisions of the Bill, but this addresses an area where I believe the Bill may be overreaching. I refer specifically to private messaging and online cloud storage services, which I do not believe constitute audiovisual content as envisaged in the directive. Those areas more properly belong to the digital services directive. There has been much discussion and consideration of the digital services directive, which has only now become an EU directive. The Minister has indicated her expectation that there will be legislation to transpose and give effect to the EU digital services directive in Irish law. It is premature to include those measures and provisions in this legislation on the audiovisual sector when they will be addressed in the digital services legislation more properly and in a more nuanced way. This relates to private messages and individual private cloud storage services, such as the storage of individual private videos and photographs.

My amendment does not exclude those areas but states, "Services defined under subsection (5) shall not be deemed to be designated online services until such date as set by the Minister following the transposition into Irish law of the European Digital Services Act." Even though they are both fruit, apples and oranges are slightly different. The same tools that are appropriate to apply to online content service providers envisaged in this Act are not necessarily the appropriate tools for private messaging between individuals and families or the private storage of photographs, videos and so on. The Bill has a restriction, stating that some of the powers shall only be exercised where there is potentially a criminal offence. The fact that there is only one restriction indicates that all the other provisions set out in the Act may well apply to those two forms of online service, which I think are more properly addressed through the EU Digital Services Act.

I know the argument has always been that the architecture for the new media commission is likely to be the architecture used to deal with the provisions of the Digital Services Act.I urge that it not begin to deal with these two areas until Ireland has properly ratified it. There is a lot of nuance in the Digital Services Act around what is appropriate with regard to backdoor access to information. There are a lot of specific measures within that Act that I hope will set out useful guides on how cloud storage and personal messaging services might be appropriately regulated. I urge the Minister to consider this amendment. It would be a way of putting a brake on the matter, especially since this Bill is likely to overlap with the European Digital Services Act and its transposition into Irish law. I do not see the harm in delaying the activation of those two areas. The commission will have more than enough work to do in the other areas of online service that are appropriate. This is just a case of trying to get ducks in a row.