We will hold tech firms to account to stop the spread of disinformation in wake of Dublin riots, says Fianna Fail TD
SOCIAL media firms have come under fire since the Dublin riots made headlines around the globe.
Dublin-headquartered companies Meta, TikTok and Google appeared before the Oireachtas media committee on Wednesday to discuss disinformation, media literacy and the response to the disorder following the horror stabbings of a number of children and their minder.
Tánaiste Micheal Martin said in the aftermath of the trouble that he was concerned at the “rapid mobilisation of so many people via social media”.
Meta told the committee that it has removed almost 1,000 pieces of false information in Ireland so far this year.
It has also applied labels warning of misleading information to one million items on Facebook.
Meanwhile, TikTok Ireland said the platform took down 25 false claims on the day of the Dublin riots, including that the Army was being deployed in the city centre.
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Writing in the Irish Sun today, chair of the committee, Fianna Fail TD NIAMH SMYTH, says more needs to be done by tech companies to crack down on the spread of disinformation.
HOLDING TECH FIRMS TO ACCOUNT
WE in Fianna Fáil watched the violence unfold in Dublin last Thursday night with deep concern.
The scenes, beamed on news channels across the world, do not represent who we are as a people.
Ireland has built a modern and inclusive society. It is precious and we should all work to hold on to it.
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Citizens of this country understand the need to respect each other, our differences and the dignity of every human being. Lawlessness and rioting stemming from the extremist views of a select few cannot be tolerated.
The violent events of November 23 coincided with the centenary celebration of the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature to former Senator W B Yeats.
Those who witnessed the scenes on the streets of Dublin would be forgiven for recalling the laureate’s poem The Second Coming, in which Yeats writes: “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world”.
We wonder now if these words were a foretelling.
EXTREMIST VIEWS SPREADING
While extremist views have always existed, and certainly existed in the interwar years during which Yeats wrote the Second Coming, modern technology now emboldens those who hold these views and allows them to spread it more rapidly.
A 2018 survey found that 69 per cent of Irish people were exposed to online news which is either fake or misrepresented reality at least once a week. Their concerns were not without foundation.
In the run-up to the 2018 repeal of the Eighth Amendment referendum, a fog of disinformation relating to reproductive healthcare emerged on social media.
Much of the disinformation was posted by accounts from the US, linked to radical right-wing organisations.
The posts were often designed to look like it was put up by legitimate news sites, such as RTÉ, and, therefore, could deceive Irish social media users.
In response, Google and Facebook banned all foreign advertisements relating to the referendum.
However, users successfully circumvented the ban and disinformation targeting Irish voters continued to be posted from the US, UK, Hungary and other jurisdictions.
DISINFORMATION BATTLE
Skip forward a few years and big tech platforms are still failing to effectively regulate and remove harmful content.
This was no more evident than during the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns.
Fear and isolation led to people spending hours online in search of comfort, only to find themselves enwrapped in a spiral of false content and conspiracy theories.
Every social media user will recall the claims relating to the virus, the vaccination programme and government conspiracy theories.
However, what was not as evident at the time was that this pandemic-centred content would open the floodgates to a barrage of disinformation.
Three years after the pandemic, malicious posts relating to the LGBTQ+ community, the war in Ukraine and immigration is now far more prevalent on mainstream social media.
Just last week, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue published their investigation into The Online Mis and Disinformation Ecosystem in Ireland.
The report confirmed that the level of disinformation on Irish social media has grown year on year since 2020.
Worryingly, the report also found that false information and conspiracy theories spread online lead to direct, real-life action, including acts of violence such as those seen in Dublin last week.
Unsurprisingly, the report stated that tech companies are still failing to curb the spread of disinformation on their platforms, thereby allowing it to thrive.
GOVT CRACK DOWN
The Government is working to ensure that tech companies take a stand against this.
Coimisiún na Meán, established earlier this year, is a new authority responsible for introducing a regulatory framework for online safety.
In the wake of the events in Dublin last week, the Coimisiún is engaging with online platforms on the sharing of images and videos of the tragic incident which took place on Parnell Square and the potential use of this incident to incite violence.
The Coimisiún’s online safety code, to be finalised by early 2024, will set out rules for how online services deal with defined categories of harmful content, including extremist ones such as hate speech, threats and incitement to violence. Failure to comply with the code will lead to financial sanctions of up to €20million. Criminal penalties will apply for continued non-compliance.
Separately, the Government is developing the National Counter Disinformation Strategy to coordinate the efforts to counter the harmful effects of disinformation. The strategy will also be finalised early next year.
Combined, the national strategy and the work of Coimisiún na Meán will go a long way to tackling harmful online content.
But Fianna Fáil understands that we must do more.
We must act faster and with more targeted actions to protect our democracy from malicious disinformation, aimed at stirring up violence and hatred.
We will ensure that our regulations are up to date.
We will ensure that tech companies comply with our robust regulations.
We will ensure the preservation of our modern, inclusive society for generations to come.
We will ensure that the centre holds.