Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed)
Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-11
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Gerard P. Craughwell (IND), Labour Panel

I want to know that. We talked about social media companies. When I sit down at my laptop, PC or phone and decide to tweet something or put something up on a social media site, I am transmitting. A transmission takes place in bits, bytes, packets, etc., which move their way through the Internet from the original source. If the Minister looks at the social media website in question this evening, because the algorithm knows he is interested in the sort of thing I just tweeted, it will appear at the top of his list. Has the Internet service provider transmitted something? Has a transmission taken place which is defamatory? It is not as simple as saying that the Internet service provider in question is merely a conduit; it is not. It uses sophisticated algorithms to rebroadcast things it thinks will drive traffic to its website.
The Minister talked about the Digital Services Act, European directives, etc. They are all grossly outdated. Technology moves in exponential leaps and at a phenomenal rate. The Minister is providing protection for people who are making massive profits out of the gutter of interaction between human beings. I do not believe they are just conduits. A conduit - you stick it up on your window and that is it. If I manipulate something in some way to ensure it has a greater audience, I am no longer acting as a conduit; I am acting as a transmitter. I am acting as somebody who is bringing forward defamatory information, that is, if the information turns out to be defamatory.
I have huge concerns about the way in which the most wealthy of the individuals involved here are being protected. The individual posting the material, as Senator McDowell said, may not actually be aware that what they are saying is defamatory, but you can be damn sure that the service provider will have a string of lawyers to provide it with advice and information.
We are going to run out of time today. I will come to the House on the next occasion and go through the transmission methodology involved in bringing forward messages. Someone cannot say they are not liable if they are transmitting information. As Senator McDowell pointed out, there is no border. If you put something on the front page of The Irish Times or the Irish Independent , it is probably restricted to Ireland. Put it up on the Internet and it can be seen anywhere in the world. I would like to simplify things and see if there is a way to move things forward in a way that will ensure there is justice for the individual, particularly as we cannot all afford to run to the courts. That is the bottom line. I will see what else comes up.

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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