The Irish Times view on online safety: calling time on self-regulation

The Government's approval of the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill, now going to the Oireachtas, marks an important advance from ineffective self-regulation of the wild west online world towards a significant enhancing of online safety. The Bill, which establishes a new regulator, the Media Commission, replacing and expanding to online services the remit of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI), is to be welcomed. The commission will tackle criminal, violent or sexual content, serious cyberbullying and other damaging material.

Importantly the commission and its online safety commissioner will have mandatory investigative powers and the ability to impose substantial fines – up to €20 million or 10 per cent of turnover. It will have a staff of up to 300 and be funded by the industry through broadcasters’ former BAI contributions and levies on social media companies and video on-demand services.

With Ireland responsible for regulation of EU-wide services based here, the commission will have to represent consumers of Irish-headquartered giants like Google. It is a task so potentially huge that the Bill's drafters have opted not to provide for a right, through the commission, of individual complaint, although Minister for Media Catherine Martin has set up an expert committee to examine its viability. The right was of strong concern to TDs and NGOs when the Bill was considered by an Oireachtas committee, and is part of the Australian system.

In this respect the commission would differ significantly from the Press Council, its counterpart for news publishers. The latter's complaints system is specifically geared to individual redress, and kicks in only after publications have been asked and failed to address grievances. That requirement provides an important buffer against what otherwise could be an unmanageable deluge of work, but also gives an important sense of ownership of the process to complainants. The Press Council can also consider complaints about potentially defamatory material – specifically excluded from the remit of the commission. Unfortunately, however, Government promises to deal with the iniquity of the wider defamation regime are being long-fingered.

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The Irish Bill comes at a time when the EU is also moving on digital giants’ accountability, and in a way that largely complements and mirrors the philosophy of the Irish approach. The Digital Services Act is due to be passed this month by MEPs, requiring the biggest organisations – those reaching more than 10 per cent of 450 million consumers – to give regulators and external groups greater access to internal data. They will also need to appoint independent auditors to assess their compliance and conduct yearly risk assessments. In breach of the rules, they could face fines of up to six per cent of annual revenue.