Dr Eileen Culloty of the DCU Institute for Future Media, Democracy and Society (FuJo) appeared before the Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport this Wednesday, 15 January, in her role as co-chair of Media Literacy Ireland.
The committee was meeting to discuss the regulation of online platforms and the supports needed to improve online safety and participation. The session comes amid growing public and political concern about how digital platforms are governed and the responsibilities placed on users.
Alongside Media Literacy Ireland, representatives from An Garda Síochána, the Hope and Courage Collective, and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue also attended the meeting.
In its opening statement, Media Literacy Ireland highlights the role platform design plays in shaping online experiences, noting that:
“Digital participation occurs within specially designed environments. In some cases, those environments are designed with features that can promote harmful practices and this is a clear focus for regulation.”
The statement also addresses the limits of individual responsibility in complex digital systems, adding:
“The complexity of digital media places a great burden on individuals. They are expected to understand how digital content and services are owned, operated and regulated. They are also expected to be aware of what to do and where to go when things go wrong.”
Attention at the committee is expected to focus on ongoing controversies surrounding the regulation of major platforms, including recent concerns about X’s AI system, Grok.
Following the hearing, EDMO Ireland’s Aidan O'Brien joined committee chair Alan Kelly on Newstalk to discuss platform regulation. Aidan outlined why the powers exist to sanction X already exist.
He also posed a simple but puzzling question: if many ministers state that X has crossed a line, why are the government and government departments still active on that platform?
Listen to the interview here
https://lnkd.in/exA_gUkV
Related Projects
EDMO Ireland is one of fourteen hubs established as part of the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO). Coordinated by Dr Eileen Culloty from Dublin City University (DCU), the EDMO Ireland consortium includes the DCU Institute for Future Media, Democracy and Society (FuJo), TheJournal FactCheck, NewsWhip, and the University of Sheffield. It is part-financed by the European Union to monitor and analyse disinformation; conduct factchecks and investigations; develop media literacy resources; as...
