Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I know they are independent but public representatives are not treated fairly or in the same way as other citizens. Our families do not get the respect they deserve when people admit and plead guilty to doing something. I am highlighting something that is a fact. A little bit more respect needs to be shown to us and our families. This issue was highlighted to me on Wednesday, the day after the court case, when Meta, TikTok and Google attended a meeting of an Oireachtas committee. These are three social media companies that a number of months ago I invited to come before the committee to discuss online safety. At that meeting, Meta admitted to treating those of us in public life differently. Any hate content put up on social media by anybody against those of us in political life is treated as being in the public interest and is left there. For a private citizen it would be taken down if it was proved to be incorrect or false. This is not acceptable. Two of the companies, TikTok and Google, have a different stance but Meta treats us differently and allows false information about anybody in public life to be put up and not taken down. This has to change and the company needs to be called out on it.