Politics

Government seeks pre-election pact with tech giants amid ‘supercharged’ disinformation threats

Threats ‘deeply corrosive to our democratic discourse’ are focus of EU and domestic leglislation

The Government has yet to commence parts of the Electoral Reform Act, which are seen as of key importance as they introduce new obligations on online platforms and buyers of advertising. Photograph: Rui Vieira/PA Wire
The Government has yet to commence parts of the Electoral Reform Act, which are seen as of key importance as they introduce new obligations on online platforms and buyers of advertising. Photograph: Rui Vieira/PA Wire
Jack Horgan-Jones
Mon Apr 01 2024 - 06:00

The Government will seek a pre-election pact with technology giants to counter disinformation in the face of “supercharged” threats in advance of local, European and general elections to be held in the next 12 months.

Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien and Minister of State Malcolm Noonan have written to the lobby group for some of the largest tech multinationals operating in Ireland, asking them to talks later this month, warning of threats that are “deeply corrosive to our democratic discourse”.

The companies will be asked to sign up to a new Irish Election Integrity Accord on the eve of elections that come after the longest period in the history of the State without a nationwide party political contest being held, the Ministers wrote to Technology Ireland.

A range of EU and domestic laws have been passed or are in train to attempt to counter the threats of disinformation and misinformation interfering online in the electoral process.

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The Government, however, has yet to commence parts of the Electoral Reform Act, which are seen as of key importance as they introduce new obligations on online platforms and buyers of advertising.

The accord will consist of a “set of principles for the sector”, they wrote, which will cover both political advertising transparency and disinformation in line with the Electoral Reform Act passed by the Government in 2022, as well as EU requirements and a “reaffirmation” of existing codes of practice.

A summit of the companies with the Department of Housing, which is in charge of matters pertaining to elections, has been proposed for April 24th in the Mansion House.

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The development of the accord is to be led by An Coimisiún Toghcháin – the Electoral Commission. The Ministers wrote that the years since the last nationwide elections in Ireland have seen “a number of disinformation threats to our democracy become supercharged”.

“Domestic bad faith actors and foreign interference operations are now potentially empowered and emboldened by the expansion of generative AI [Artificial Intelligence] models and a fragmented social media landscape,” they wrote.

In a separate letter to An Coimisiún Toghcháin, the Ministers wrote that their goal would be the agreement of a “set of principles for the sector and the State to work by to safeguard our democracy over these crucial next few months”.

In response to a parliamentary question to Green Party TD Marc Ó Cathasaigh last December, about why parts four and five of the Electoral Reform Act had not been commenced, Mr O’Brien said that the European Commission had raised a concern that a number of provisions in part four were incompatible with parts of the EU’s ecommerce directive.

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Part four mandates that an online platform has to label the text of an advert as a political advert and link to a transparency notice including information about the buyer, and confirmation of whether micro-targeting of an individual was involved in purchasing the ad, along with a range of other information.

Online platforms will have to keep an archive of political advertisements for at least seven years, and also apply measures to verify the identity of a buyer, alongside other obligations which will fall on the buyer themselves.

In December, Mr O’Brien said it would be necessary to bring part four into line with a proposal from the EU on transparency and targeting of political advertisements, which was expected to be formally adopted early this year, and after which he said his department would give further consideration to any necessary adjustments to the uncommenced parts of the Irish Act.

Jack Horgan-Jones

Jack Horgan-Jones

Jack Horgan-Jones is a Political Correspondent with The Irish Times