Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 27:

In page 40, between lines 7 and 8, to insert the following:

“(2A) The Commission shall ensure the status as a trusted flagger is not awarded to an entity which is partisan and seeks the status as a trusted flagger as means of controlling or influencing content.”.

Central to my concerns with this Bill and those of many of the public is the phrase “Who watches the watchers?”, taken in conjunction with Pontius Pilate's utterance, quid est veritas, or what is truth? Ever since 2016, the online spaces of social media have been plagued with the ambiguous fact checkers, the individuals and bodies which often, by some unknown mechanism, are granted the power to remove or suppress content that is deemed untrue or partially untrue. Obviously, the abuse of this power has become widespread almost immediately as partisan ideological moderators crack down on anything that challenges their worldview or paints their opponents in a favourable light. Mark Zuckerberg famously once told the US Congress that these fact checks were simply opinions given by individuals or bodies in order to not have Facebook liable as a publisher. The moniker of fact checking has now become a running joke online, synonymous with being merely an alternative opinion lending undue weight. Now that the fact checking frenzy has died down and largely gone away, Ireland wants to introduce this on a statutory basis and give people more power than ever before because we are always five years late and we seem to exclusively adopt policies that other countries are abandoning after seeing that they do not work.

This amendment, with amendments Nos. 28 and 32, seeks to limit the damage that these trusted flaggers will be able to do when, inevitably, this status is awarded to bodies that are pursuing a particular agenda, which they will do, particularly on social issues. Amendment No. 28 states:

In page 40, between lines 16 and 17, to insert the following:

“(6) The Commission shall establish a database of trusted flaggers, including aggregate details of complaints, including unsuccessful complaints, to be published publicly on a yearly basis.”.

Very simply, we need to know who these flaggers are. The people have had enough of faceless bureaucrats working behind the scenes. If they are to have the power, they must also take the responsibility. This complaints process will allow the public to make an informed decision on the effectiveness of the trusted flaggers. Amendment No. 32 states:

In page 40, between lines 34 and 35, to insert the following:

“(3) The Commission shall establish a mechanism for third parties to lodge complaints regarding the actions and workings of trusted flaggers.”.

These are the amendments that I wish to move.