Media Committee to examine online content promoting criminal activity with Coimisiún na Meán, TikTok, Meta and Google

The Joint Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport will meet tomorrow, Wednesday September 23rd, to examine the issue of online content promoting criminal activity.

The Committee will engage with representatives from the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport, Coimisiún na Meán, TikTok, Meta and Google.

The meeting will focus on the measures being taken to identify, prevent and remove online content which promotes, encourages or glorifies criminal or dangerous activity, including content relating to dangerous driving.

The Committee will also examine the responsibilities of online platforms and the regulatory framework governing illegal content online, including the role of Coimisiún na Meán in supervising compliance with online safety rules.

Committee Cathaoirleach Deputy Alan Kelly said: "Following the deeply concerning dangerous-driving incidents on our roads over the Summer, the Committee believes it is important to examine the role that online content can play in promoting, encouraging or glorifying conduct which puts lives at risk.

We will hear from the Department, Coimisiún na Meán and major e-commerce companies about how content is identified and assessed. The information provided to the Committee shows that platforms employ a range of measures, including automated detection tools, specialist human review, reports from users and law-enforcement agencies, and systems designed to detect relevant keywords, hashtags and repeated uploads.

We will be interested in how this content is identified and dealt with in practice, the effectiveness of existing safeguards, and the responsibilities of platforms in protecting users, particularly younger people, from harmful content.

We will also consider the important distinction identified by Coimisiún na Meán between content that depicts criminal activity and content that promotes or glorifies it. Legitimate news reporting and public-interest discussion must be protected, but material which actively encourages people to endanger themselves or others must be addressed decisively."

Watch them meeting live on www.oireachtas.ie or on the Oireachtas smartphone app for Apple and Android.