Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed)
Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-11
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Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South

Obviously Senator Craughwell has raised issues that go beyond what is in the Bill here today. I know he is very conscious of that. As I said at the outset, the Digital Services Act and the e-commerce directive provide what can be described as high-level immunity to Internet service providers. They are not liable for what is put on their platform. You can understand the reason for that. Social media would not operate if somebody had to assess it and modify it every time. This is part of the reason a lot of traditional newspapers have stopped the comments section. Previously there was a liability for them in terms of their comments section although they had some similar protections but it does require a lot of review in respect of it.
On people using the Senator’s name online, there is a mechanism for him to say that his identity is being passed off by another individual. He can contact the Internet service provider about it. We are stuck with the law at present that says that under the Digital Services Act, the commerce directive, there are protections for Internet service providers.
On algorithms, I would have thought that was just an issue that goes to the increased circulation of the publication. It does not really go to the issue about liability of the publisher.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-12-11/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:27+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-11