Patricia Stephenson (Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I wish to speak today about gender-based violence, the prevalence of which is still shockingly high in Ireland, where we are still very much facing an epidemic of gender-based violence. How we respond to gender-based violence needs to be strengthened, but to truly address GBV, we need to look at the prevention angle. The online sphere is a major contributing factor to GBV.Young people are spending significant time online, where they are being exposed to extremely harmful forms of masculinity with influencers who promote a regressive form of masculinity that promotes sexual and gender-based violence and contributes harmful attitudes and behaviours towards women and girls, including the likes of discriminatory and hateful language.

Studies have shown that long-standing exposure to this type of very misogynistic content is contributing to how boys perceive girls. It is within this context that I wanted to have a debate with the Minister for media - though I am delighted that the Minister of State, Deputy Healy-Rae, is here – on the issue specifically as it relates to the social media recommender algorithms, which contribute significantly to pushing boys and young men down these rabbit holes of deeply misogynistic content online. While in theory we have Coimisiún na Meán in place to regulate the online space, the reality in practice is nothing the commission is doing right now actually solves the issue and tackles the issue of the recommender algorithms. A deeply reckless attitude is being taken by social media companies vis-à-visthe misogynistic and harmful content we are seeing online. In addition, the code of practice for video-sharing platforms does not tackle the material impacts of intimate partner abuse for anyone over 18. Indeed, we have seen some legal actions being taken by several social media platforms, arguing that they do not fit the criteria for video sharing, so the code of practice does not apply to them.

There is clear evidence that sharing intimate partner images connects strongly to intimate partner abuse. Therefore, tackling online safety and the sharing of material without consent is a critical part of dealing with gender-based violence as well as domestic violence.

Victims of online abuse are predominantly women, often women from marginalised backgrounds. They face harassment, threats, doxing and non-consensual sharing of images. This can lead to things like psychological distress and, in some cases, self-harm, and we have had cases of suicide.

The fear of online abuse silences voices and creates a chilling effect as it comes to freedom of expression. People do not want to speak out or stand up for their rights because they are concerned that online harassment could be used against them. We currently have no meaningful mechanism for an individual to get sensitive images and content taken down, with the exception of hotline.ie, which is an organisation that is doing stellar work but with incredibly limited resources.

As we all know in this room, Ireland holds a unique position, hosting many of the world’s largest tech companies for their European headquarters. It is within that context that Ireland should be leading and regulating the online space regarding preventing gender-based violence. The current legal framework we have, including the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act, needs to be strengthened to have clear accountability for platforms. Right now, it is not working.

Regarding how we regulate the online space, we also need to look within our education system and at what we are doing to tackle online violence in schools and education settings, with students but also with teachers and parents. This needs to be an holistic response. We cannot approach issues of this type from just one angle when we are trying to tackle them.

I would welcome the Minister of State outlining exactly what the Department of media is doing in respect of the recommender algorithms but also, more broadly, the specific actions being taken in collaboration with the Department of Education to tackle this issue in schools.