Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish the students a happy St. Brigid's weekend, particularly as it is a Kildare school.

This Bill will designate Coimisiún na Meán as Ireland's lead competent authority in respect of this matter. There are four systemic risks in this context. I will comment briefly in this regard. I will also probably be submitting some amendments on Committee and Report Stages to see how we can address these risks.

I start with illegal content, including child sexual abuse materials. I again note my colleague Senator Flynn's long-standing legislation to ensure that the inappropriate phrase "child pornography", which still exists in our legislation, would be replaced by the appropriate language, namely, "child sex abuse materials". As we mention this context now, this is a chance to remember that we should be updating the other legislation in this respect as well. I refer as well to the impact of illegal hate speech, the impacts in respect of the Charter of Fundamental Rights around discrimination and privacy and the foreseeable impacts on the democratic process, public security and disinformation campaigns. I will touch briefly on each aspect, including, as I did when we spoke regarding the language establishing Coimisiún na Meán, in terms of the other principle around the rights of participation and equitable and diverse participation within online spaces and communication.

It is welcome that there are wide-ranging restrictions under the legislation on precisely what kind of targeting online platforms can do. There will be a ban on targeting advertising based on people's sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity and political beliefs. It is no exaggeration to say that some of the targeting practices permitted until recently, and that are still taking place, have verged on the dystopian. InThe Age of Surveillance Capitalism, Dr. Shoshana Zuboff gives an example of a young woman who did not know she was pregnant. An online algorithm, however, was able to detect the changes in her online shopping and correctly predict that she was pregnant and target information and products at her in that way. That is the somewhat dystopian aspect of this context. This example did not involve targeting based on a protected characteristic, but it is a cautionary example. It is very welcome in particular, for example, to see targeting by sexual orientation is no longer going to be permitted. As we know, this type of targeting can have particularly detrimental impacts on young people. Other legislation is pending regarding a ban on conversion therapy, but we know that disinformation, and very frightening information, can often be targeted at people questioning their sexuality.

Regarding the targeting facet, as well, I note that Senator Ruane and I had the general data protection regulation, GDPR, legislation amended back when it came through the House. Our amendment specifically looked at limiting advertising for children, which brings me to our next area of concern. I again note that Ireland could have been ahead of the curve because our Data Protection Act 2018 has a specific clause seeking to ban the targeting of advertising to children. Senator Ruane and I submitted an amendment to that effect which was successfully inserted into the Bill. That section of the legislation, however, was never commenced. It was never put into effect. It is good that the Digital Services Act is now addressing this context, but we could, and should, have had this provision in place since 2018. When we think of the damage done because the targeting of advertisements to children has been allowed since then, it is regrettable that we have lost so many years in this regard. Several provisions in the legislation do go some way towards addressing harm caused in this regard. Users will now be able to view their social media timelines chronologically rather than in a sequence controlled by an algorithm. Children will also be able to be free of targeted advertisements while in online spaces. These are all important steps in creating an online space that is less manipulative.

The DSA goes part of the way towards curtailing the worst intrusive practices. Crucially, it is welcome that there is a ban on profiling based on protected characteristics such as sexual orientation and ethnicity. Serious concerns have been raised regarding human rights violations of this type. It was found in the United States, in the state of Washington, for example, that the type of housing information displayed was targeted to or hidden from people of particular ethnicities. Also influenced was the kind of messaging put out and the kind of profiles being built. Those profiles, in themselves, then, become self-reinforcing, in that they can have a real social impact. That social impact then becomes something blamed on ethnicity, when it has, in fact, been created. There is a long record of this type of occurrence.Coming back to the amendments, one of the concerns is that so many of those algorithms do not simply just have data points and are based on profiling but there is training of these algorithms to associate certain prejudices with certain characteristics. I acknowledge Abeba Birhane, a really outstanding researcher at UCD, who is one of those who exposed the intense prejudice built into the MIT database. This is the massive database that MIT used, with many algorithms making many decisions targeting lots of material, including targeted advertisements. Ms Birhane was one of two academics who went inside that black box and looked at what are the signals and what are the information points that are being fed into the algorithms they are being trained on. She found there was gross racial prejudice, misogyny and so forth within those boxes. This is an Irish academic we should be very proud of as one of the first to highlight the impacts of this issue.

Very large online platforms, VLOPs, and very large online search engines, VLOSEs are special categories. These entities have more than 45 million monthly active users, which is 10% of the EU consumer citizen base. These platforms should be subject to more onerous obligations around transparency and the control of harmful and illegal content. This is welcome and appropriate. It cannot be overstated how much power those large platforms can have and the direct consequences of their power when it is misused and when it is unchecked. We saw very recently in Dublin how online platforms have been used to spread disinformation around asylum seekers and migrants, and how the platforms were used to plan and co-ordinate acts of violence against asylum seekers and against communities. I am also concerned that we are seeing some disinformation currently at work in respect of the forthcoming referendums, unfortunately. It is extraordinarily hard to monitor in those spaces.

Ireland is going to be a lead regulator in respect of those very large online platforms. There is a concern that our Data Protection Commission so far has not had a strong enough record in implementing the regulations we have had. Very often we have had an iterative approach where we are engaging and engaging with platforms and giving very long times and long lead ins for actions. It is appropriate that we are now looking for more restrictions. The decision to force Meta to halt its data transfers from the EU to the US is very positive from the EU but it is regrettable that Ireland has not stepped fully into its role. A total of 75% of Ireland's Data Protection Commission decisions in EU cases over a five year period were overruled by the European Data Protection Board. Effectively, Ireland is having to have the regulations applied at European level because we are failing to apply them properly at national level. That is a real shame for Ireland. It points to us as being less responsible in our role as one of the major hubs for all of the major online companies. It will reflect poorly on us and our international reputation if we are not seen to fully apply the EU's Digital Services Act. It points to attempts to wriggle out of obligations, which I will just signal.

I will also signal to the Minister of State a point which he may address when he comes back in. We have seen attempts by large platforms to define themselves outside of the rules. I am looking particularly to Amazon as an example. Will the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, assure us that Ireland will be taking very strong measures to ensure that large platforms do not manage to define themselves out of these rules that come in?

Lastly, I must signal that there are environmental implications around digital services and how they operate. I may be bringing some of those issues to the Minister's attention on Committee Stage.