A NEW Government strategy to crack down on disinformation on social media is set to be published in the coming weeks, the Irish Sun can reveal.
The last Government created a new online safety code for social media and internet companies to force them to do more to protect children and prevent them from seeing harmful content.
Alongside this, a working group was set up to develop a national strategy to counter the rise of disinformation online.
In recent years, there has been a rise in disinformation being spread on social media.
In some instances gardai have been forced to issue public statements in order to rubbish rumours about live criminal investigations.
The working group recently completed their work and delivered the new disinformation strategy to Communications Minister Patrick O’Donovan.
Minister O’Donovan has confirmed that the strategy takes a “rights-based approach” and will not impinge on the freedom of speech.
In response to a parliamentary question from Sinn Fein’s Ruairi O’Murchu, Minister O’Donovan said: “The strategy takes a rights-based approach based on key principles, including protection of freedom of expression.
“The Strategy has recently been finalised and submitted to me. I intend to bring it to Government shortly following which it will be published.”
The strategy will be brought to Cabinet in the coming weeks before being published and implemented.
While the specific actions in the strategy remain under wraps, an all-party Oireachtas Committee last year made a series of recommendations on how the Government can crack down on misinformation.
Key among these recommendations was setting up a new independent agency dedicated to helping State agencies bust disinformation.
‘COMMUNITY NOTES’ POLICY
The body would keep on top of misinformation trends on social media and advise bodies on how to tackle them.
The Oireachtas Committee also recommended that the Government should work with social media companies and fact checkers to label disinformation as false or misleading on their platforms.
The new strategy comes at a time when large US platforms such as X and Meta are cutting back on content moderation.
Instead, these platforms are moving towards a “community notes” policy which sees users flag disinformation.
ACCOUNTABILITY CALL
Fianna Fail MEP Cynthia Ni Mhurchu recently called for EU laws to be used to ensure these platforms are held accountable for enabling the spread of dangerous misinformation.
She said: “Under the stewardship of Elon Musk, Twitter or X has abandoned all semblance of content moderation, becoming a cesspit of illegal, harmful and destructive content.
“Facebook is now signalling that it intends to go down the same route, abandoning all attempts at independent content moderation.
“These platforms need to realise that the EU will not tolerate a free for all. This is a direct threat to European democracy and will be tackled head on by the existing regulations that we have in place.”
