Written answers

Tuesday, 22 March 2022

Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht

Social Media

Photo of Seán HaugheySeán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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285. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she will introduce measures to make social media platforms more responsive and accountable for hate speech and crime online targeted at persons on the basis of their asylum or refugee status, race, colour, nationality and ethnicity; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14975/22]

Photo of Catherine MartinCatherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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The Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022 will establish Coimisiún na Meán as a multi-person Media Commission, including an Online Safety Commissioner. It will dissolve the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, establish regulatory frameworks for online safety and the regulation of audiovisual media services, and transpose the revised Audiovisual Media Services Directive.

It will be the role of the Online Safety Commissioner to oversee the regulatory framework for online safety. As part of the framework, the Commissioner will devise binding online safety codes that will set out how designated online services, including social media services, are expected to deal with certain defined categories of harmful online content on their platforms.

In particular, online safety codes will ensure that designated online services take appropriate measures to reduce the availability of harmful online content linked to existing criminal offences, as set out in Irish legislation, on their services. Policy and legislation relating to the definition of the criminal offences referenced is a matter for the Minister for Justice. 

Section 45 of the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022 sets out these offence-specific categories of harmful online content. Such content includes content which is in contravention of relevant sections of the Incitement to Hatred Act, 1989. It is intended that this will have the effect of tackling the availability, on designated online services, of hate speech.

Under the Bill, in the event of a failure to comply with a relevant online safety code, and subject to Court approval, Coimisiún na Meán will have the power to sanction non-compliant online services, including through financial sanctions of up to €20 million or 10% of turnover.

The Minister for Justice published the General Scheme of the Criminal Justice (Hate Crime) Bill in 2021, which will update existing offences relating to hate speech and introduce will create new, aggravated forms of certain existing criminal offences (hate crimes).

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