Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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66. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the status of the online safety and media regulation Bill which includes the establishment of an online safety commissioner; if he will address the issue of websites that are developed for the express purpose of anonymity for trolling persons online; the accountability which will be in place to stop this behaviour; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14282/20]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The proposed Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill will establish a multi-person Media Commission, including an Online Safety Commissioner, dissolve the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, establish a regulatory framework for online safety and  the regulation of audiovisual media services, and transpose the revised Audiovisual Media Services Directive.  

The regulatory framework for online safety will be overseen by the Online Safety Commissioner. The Commissioner will have the power to designate online services for regulation and to create and enforce binding online safety codes. These will seek to minimise the availability of harmful online content, including serious cyberbullying material, through oversight of the systems that online services use to deliver and moderate content. The regulator will have the power to sanction non-compliant online services.

The General Scheme of the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill was approved by Government on 9 January 2020 and subsequently published on 10 January 2020. At that time the Government also approved the detailed drafting of the proposed Bill by the Office of the Attorney General and forwarded the General Scheme to the Joint Oireachtas Committee for Communications, Climate Action and Environment for pre-legislative scrutiny. Due to the dissolution of the Dáil and Committees in January, pre-legislative scrutiny has not yet commenced. Engagement with the AGO is continuing on the detailed drafting of the Bill.

The finalised General Scheme will also be notified to the European Commission for a technical conformity assessment with relevant EU law regarding regulations on online services.

Responsibility for media and broadcasting is being assigned to the Minister for Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sport and the Gaeltacht.