Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join the Leas-Chathaoirleach and Deputy Leader in welcoming the ambassador and his staff. I wish them well and thank them for their service.

I note the comments made by the egotistical billionaire owner of the social media platform X, or Twitter, this morning. He made an expletive-ridden rant attacking his own advertisers who are leaving the platform in their droves and taking their money away. It is also notable that last Thursday, when riots were raging in this city and the Garda was contacting the social media platform giants based here in Dublin to have them remove the vile content and disinformation that was appearing online, his company, X, was the only one that was not willing to engage with An Garda Síochána. This was confirmed by the Minister for Justice in the Dáil. Meta and TikTok engaged with the Garda but not so X, which is a law unto itself and which, as its owner has stated, has no regard for the concept of regulation.

Next Wednesday, representatives from the social media giants, Meta Google and TikTok, will appear before the media committee to discuss disinformation and how their platforms are used and abused. X will not appear in public session. It will attend but only in private session, so we will not have Mr. Musk's company in next Wednesday to discuss the concept of disinformation openly and transparently, as he would like.

Yesterday, in the audiovisual room we had representatives from independent radio stations across Ireland, which do such a fine job and uphold good journalistic standards. As they noted, the total advertising revenue of the sector and RTÉ is €166 million, whereas the social media giants will take almost €1 billion in advertising revenue. This shows the disparity that has arisen in the media in Ireland. We cannot hold back the water in terms of where people use and access news and media. That would be a fruitless exercise. There is an urgent need for a debate about media literacy in this country. We should have a debate on the issue in this Chamber with the Minister for Education. If people are accessing platforms such as X, which clearly cannot regulate itself and has failed to comply with its own community's standards, to get their information, it is incumbent on us to ensure we have an open debate about media literacy and the trajectory of the media in this country.