Watchdog to police online terrorist content

A powerful watchdog will be set up in Ireland with the authority to demand online platforms take down terrorist content, under Government plans to implement a forthcoming EU directive.

The Department of Justice said the regulation would oblige service providers to comply with orders to remove content within a specified timeframe and to “proactively” take measures to protect their platforms from terrorist content.

The Garda’s intelligence boss told the Irish Examiner the Government had issued “strong support” for the ‘Christchurch Call’ — a commitment by governments and tech companies to eliminate terrorist and violent extremism content online.

The commitment was issued in May after the terrorist attack last March on two mosques in New Zealand, resulting in the death of 51 people. The atrocity was livestreamed by Brenton Tarrant and went viral.

“Following on from the Government’s strong support for Christchurch Call, the Department of Justice and Equality is preparing for the implementation of the proposed EU Regulation on preventing the dissemination of terrorist content,” said assistant commissioner Michael O’Sullivan, head of Garda Security & Intelligence (S&I).

In a statement, the department said:

The Department of Justice and Equality, and the Government, as a whole, is committed to protecting Ireland from terrorism and supporting international peace and security.

It said that as it was an EU Regulation it would have “direct effect”. They and the Attorney General will examine it to determine if legislation was required and would have 12 months to implement it.

The department said member states would have to established a “Competent Authority” to carry out the functions, including “identifying terrorist content online, issuing removal and referral orders to online companies and overseeing compliance with these orders.

The statement added: “Hosting Service Providers will be required to comply with removal orders and remove terrorist content within a specified timeframe, to take proactive measures to protect their platforms and users from terrorist content and to publish regular reports on these matters for transparency.”

Mr O’Sullivan said that “in the interim”, gardaí would continue to work with European Union Internet Referral Unit, operated by Europol, the EU police agency.

He said Garda S&I had “no immediate plans” to set up its own Internet Referral Unit, which some police forces have.

He said there were two garda liaison officers at Europol who fulfill their needs by working with the EU IRU and the European Counter Terrorism Centre, based within Europol.

Mr O’Sullivan said the EU IRU also had the Check-The-Web service, an electronic library of ‘jihadist’ terrorist online propaganda. The S&I assistant commissioner is a member of the Europol management board.

“Therefore, having a separate Internet Referral Unit in AGS would, as things currently stand, be duplication of the service provided to member states by Europol,” he said.