Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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46. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if she has engaged with the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media to consider legislative and policy measures to prevent the recording of and subsequent sharing of videos of acts of violence; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [52366/22]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the measures set out in the Online Safety and Media Regulation Billbeing brought forward by my colleague, Minister Catherine Martin, T.D., particularly the creation of an Online Safety Commissioner and the scope to create binding codes of conduct in relation to harmful content.

The Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill will establish a Media Commission to replace the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and provide for the appointment of an Online Safety Commissioner who will oversee the establishment of a regulatory framework for online safety.

Under the framework, the Online Safety Commissioner will devise online safety codes requiring certain designated online services to operate appropriate systems and processes to minimise the availability of some of the most serious forms of harmful online content. Such content will include certain criminal material, including a number of relevant offences from the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017, the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020 and the Non-Fatal Offences against the Person Act 1997.

In respect of videos of violent acts that also meet the definition of terrorist content, the EU Regulation on addressing the dissemination of terrorist content online provides a statutory basis for the removal of such content from the internet by EU Member States’ competent authorities. I was pleased to support the enactment of this Regulation last year. In Ireland’s case, it is intended that An Garda Síochána will act as the national authority for issuing such removal orders to hosting service providers.

With regards to the sharing of videos of acts of violence on social media and messaging apps, An Garda Síochána regularly issue statements through the Garda Press Office and on social media advising members of the public not to share such videos due to their sensitive nature with respect to the family and friends of victims and because they can be unhelpful to Garda investigations.