Sir, – If The Irish Times is regulated to the effect that it cannot (and would not) publish a letter from an individual threatening violence against the Taoiseach, Simon Harris, his wife and young children, how are such threats allowed by social media companies to be published on their platforms?
Ireland’s Constitution affords us protection against the publication or utterance of seditious matter. Yet bad actors are openly organising their thuggery against our communities and our country on these platforms.
Requests by gardaí to have violent, abusive, hate-filled and illegal content removed are ignored, and so-called reporting mechanisms for individual users are treated in the same manner.
How bad does the violence on our streets have to get before governments, including our own, hold social media companies to account? – Yours, etc,
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SINÉAD MÁIRE NÍ BHROIN,
Buncrana,
Co Donegal.
Sir, – Why do we tolerate social media in its present form? The internet is possibly one of the greatest inventions in human history but social media is a disaster.
It would appear that social media is destroying democracy, increasing anxiety in the population, especially among younger people, spreading conspiracy theories, lies and there are many other downsides, in particular the attack on truth.
The riots in the UK started after incorrect information about the perpetrator of the attack on children in Southport was circulated on social media. In Ireland lies on social media have resulted in attacks on potential refugee centres and assaults on refugees and others.
Many academics, researchers and policy makers understand the dangers of social media but nothing is being done to deal with this problem.
The attack on truth is also potentially disastrous. As we move towards a world dependent on technology and science we can ill afford the culture of “alternative facts” to dominate.
Social media’s aim is to make money by selling users’ data and it is not interested in truth.
What should be done? The EU should regulate social media and insist that social media companies are publishers and are as responsible for the dangerous content as the authors.
We are entering a dangerous period with climate change, biodiversity loss and other crises. We will not be able to deal with these crises if the population is constantly bombarded with lies and dangerous rubbish as happened during the Covid pandemic. – Yours, etc,
NICK ARMSTRONG,
Dundrum,
Dublin.