Irish and UK governments urged to rein in social media recommender systems

Violence in Belfast led to police in riot gear flooding the area after petrol bombs and missiles were thrown at officers.

Social media "recommender" systems should be turned off by default in order to combat the "spread of hate", more than 240 groups have said in an open letter to Irish and British leaders.

Recommender systems are algorithms which use data such as search history, past purchases, age and location to decide which content social media users are presented with. 

They were not included in the draft Online Safety Code published in May by the media regulator, Coimisiún na Meán. In its FAQs on the code, the Coimisiún said that a plan to include the systems "was consulted on as a supplementary measure in the draft Code and was not intended to be in the first Code".

It added: "We recognise that recommender systems can have harmful impacts on users, especially children. Under our Online Safety Framework, Coimisiún na Meán will be best able to tackle the potential dangers of recommender systems through our implementation of the Digital Services Act."

Violence

Following the outbreak of anti-migrant violence across Ireland and the UK, demands have been made for more regulation of social media. 

In an open Letter to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the Northern Irish First Minister Michelle O’Neill, deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, and Taoiseach Simon Harris, more than 240 civil society groups say that politicians need to "act quickly to prevent further violence, protect communities at risk, and hold social media platforms to account for the harms they cause".

The letter reads: "No matter who you are, where you come from or how you identify, we all deserve to walk down the street without fear, to be safe and to live a decent life. People across Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland take pride in building welcoming communities.

"But far right actors, racists and certain politicians are spreading fear determined to create mayhem, intimidate and silence communities. They try to benefit by making us afraid of each other, scapegoat marginalised communities and try to turn us against each other."

It adds that as "an immediate break-glass measure, to help stop the spread of hate, platforms must turn the toxic engagement-based recommender systems off by default and to act rapidly on harmful content on their services".

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Mark Malone, lead researcher with the Hope and Courage Collective, said that while recent comments from Mr Harris around the subject of social media companies were welcome, tech bosses "need to be held to account for the rise of threats and intimidation and be compelled by our political leaders to immediately turn the toxic engagement-based recommender systems off by default".

"People should decide what they want to see, not Big Tech's algorithms," he added.

In January, a survey by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties found that 82% of Irish people want “big tech’s toxic algorithms switched off”.