Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

To recap, the purpose of the Bill is to provide for the full implementation of the EU regulation on a single market for digital services. It is an indispensable component of a pioneering regulatory framework to protect EU users of digital services and their fundamental rights online. The framework will rebalance the responsibilities of users, online platforms and public authorities, placing citizens at the centre. It represents a sea change in the EU's ability to protect society from illegal online content and disinformation.

Resourcing both our digital services co-ordinator, Coimisiún na Meán, and the competent authority, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, is of the utmost importance to the Government. We allocated €2.7 million last year to setting up the digital services co-ordinator function in the coimisiún. This funding has increased to €6 million this year, when it will be fully operational. The CCPC has also received additional funding in 2024 for its new responsibilities under the Digital Services Act. This will enable the continuing recruitment of people with the necessary technical, legal and regulatory skills for the coimisiún to carry out its functions as the Irish digital services co-ordinator and for the CCPC as the competent authority.

This is a technical Bill that is necessary to give effect to the supervision and enforcement provisions of the EU regulation. It will not add to nor alter the obligations on intermediary service providers under the EU regulation. It will ensure the rights and protections provided for in the EU digital services regulation will be rigorously asserted in Ireland for the benefit and protection of the consumers of digital services. It is mandatory under the EU regulation for member states to give effect to these national provisions by 17 January, as we outlined. Our national digital strategy, Harnessing Digital, sets out Ireland's ambition to be a centre of regulatory excellence in Europe for the benefit of both industry and consumers. This ambition is to be realised through a modern, cohesive and well-resourced regulatory system for the digital economy, and the Bill will be a key enabler of this vision. This comprehensive and sophisticated Bill will, once enacted, re-enforce Ireland’s position as one of the most advanced and progressive EU member states in the digital economy and digital society, a fact acknowledged through our participation as a founding member of the D9+ group of EU leaders in this space.

I thank Senator Crowe for his supportive observations on the Bill and, likewise, Senator Malcolm Byrne. I agree that citizens and consumers should have the same rights online as offline. We do need to make people aware of their rights arising from the digital services regulation.

To respond to Senator Keogan in regard to the curbing of the freedom of speech, the Bill puts protection of freedom of expression at its core. This includes protection from Government interference in people's freedom of expression and information. The horizontal rules against illegal content are carefully calibrated and are accompanied by robust safeguards for freedom of expression and an effective right of redress to avoid both the under-removal and the over-removal of content on the grounds of illegality. The Bill will give users the ability to contest the decisions taken by an online platform to remove their content, including when these decisions are based on platforms' terms and conditions. Users can complain directly to the platform, use an out-of-court dispute settlement body or seek redress before the courts. The Bill provides rules on transparency of content moderation decisions for very large online platforms, VLOPs, and very large search engines, VLOSEs, and will provide users and consumers with a better understanding of the ways these platforms impact on our society. VLOPs and VLOSEs will be obliged to mitigate those risks, including as regards freedom of expression. They will be held accountable through independent auditing reports and public scrutiny. All the obligations in the Bill, including the crisis response mechanism, are carefully calibrated to promote the respect of fundamental rights, such as freedom of expression.

In respect of trusted flaggers, which Senator Keogan also spoke about, for all users the Bill will oblige providers to submit notices about illegal content. Trusted flaggers are organisations that have met certain conditions, including expertise in identifying illegal content, and have been awarded this status by the digital services co-ordinator, in our case Coimisiún na Meán. Trusted flaggers' notices will get priority but they are not the arbitrators of illegal content. It will be the responsibility of the provider to assess and decide whether the flagged content is illegal and whether it should be moderated.

I thank Senators Ahearn, Garvey and Sherlock for their support for the Bill. I understand Coimisiún na Meán will have a big challenge, but significant resources have been provided since last year to support it to build capacity to ensure it will be ready, and further increases in resources will come this year.

I thank also Senator Gavan for his support for the Bill. I responded earlier to his concerns about the protection of freedom of speech, which is embedded in the regulations.

I thank Senator Higgins for her comments. We agree the prohibited targeting of advertising towards minors is a very positive step, as is the ban on targeting based on special category data.

There is certainly a need to understand how platforms are using platforms. The European Centre for Algorithmic Transparency was set up in April of last year to provide scientific and technical expertise to the European Commission, including by carrying out research into the impact of algorithmic systems used by online platforms and search engines.

As we said, Coimisiún na Meán has been resourced early to prepare for 17 February, when the Bill will effectively come into force. Resourcing in 2023 enabled Coimisiún na Meán to recruit staff with the level of expertise that will be required, including the digital services commissioner, who has been in place since July of last year.

I understand Senator Craughwell’s concerns about online bullying and harassment. The harmful communications and related offences Act 2020 was passed specifically to address these issues. We need to be able to speak out, and the digital services regulation seeks to present the balance required to allow that to happen.