SOME OF THE major social media companies are due before the Oireachtas media committee later today to discuss online safety, disinformation and media literacy.
Representatives from Tiktok, Meta (the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp), and Google will face questions from the committee and expected to speak about the actions the companies are taking to tackle dis/misinformation on their platforms.
Many government ministers and others have voiced concern over the platforms being used to spread disinformation and “undermine” democracy by far-right activists in recent weeks.
False information about the stabbing incident on Parnell Square in Dublin last month, and the subsequent riot that followed in the city, has inflated these worries from politicians.
Particular claims have been made about the X’s level of engagement – which was labelled as “very unhelpful” by the enterprise minister yesterday.
X, formerly Twitter, was accused by the justice minister of not engaging with gardaí to remove posts regarding the Dublin riot and the attack on Parnell Square.
Responding yesterday, X said it had engaged and has “proactively taken action on more than 1,230 pieces of content under our rules relating to the riots”.
It added that it met with the media commission, Coimisiún na Meán on Friday 24 November – the day after the riot.
The social media company added that Gardaí did not make any formal requests to the platform until late on Monday 27 November.
However, a spokesperson for gardaí said the police force were “in contact with social media companies in relation to certain content” during and after the knife attack and riot – on 23 November.
Coimisúin na Meán, last week said that when it became aware of the stabbing incident, it “immediately contacted” platforms about “the potential sharing of images and videos of the incident online and the potential use of this incident to incite violence against individuals or groups”.
Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has also requested to meet with the company after the concerns were raised to her over the company’s engagement.
Ahead of the meeting, the committee’s chair Fianna Fáil TD Niamh Smyth said the meeting was called for as the group “realise the importance of the continued scrutiny and oversight of these companies”.
Smyth added: “Our engagement with these companies will allow them to demonstrate how they are actively leading in the eradication of the very prevalent false information and clickbait style content among users of their platforms.”
Under tough new EU regulations, it falls to the platforms themselves to make sure the content doesn’t make it on the site in the first place.
Fine Gael MEP Deirdre Clune, and a member of the European Parliament’s Internal Market & Consumer Protection Committee, said at an event on Friday: “I’ve been aware of it since the start of COVID, misinformation, disinformation have started appearing online.
“There’s been a code of conduct in place but also a strong engagement with the Commission on how these platforms manage themselves.”
She added that legislation allows for these companies to be fined up to 6% of their annual turnover if they fail to engage.
Smyth said the social media companies will also be obliged to share more information about how their algorithms work under the legislation.
Representatives from X will not be present at the Oireachtas Committee this afternoon which will begin at 1.30pm.
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