Bid to include complaints mechanism  in online safety legislation

Campaigners said the lack of an individual complaints mechanism  —  the right for individuals to report breaches of the law by platforms to the regulator — is a 'major gap'

Media minister Catherine Martin earlier this month published the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill, paving the way for a powerful new regulator to oversee online communications as well as providing for the regulation of streaming services.

An expert group is to decide how one of the "major gaps" in landmark online safety legislation - the lack of an individual complaints mechanism — can best be addressed.

Media minister Catherine Martin earlier this month published the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill, paving the way for a powerful new regulator to oversee online communications as well as providing for the regulation of streaming services.

However, campaigners said that the lack of an individual complaints mechanism — the right for individuals to report breaches of the law by platforms to the regulator — is a "major gap".

Children’s Rights Alliance chief executive Tanya Ward welcomed the bill’s publication and said the legislation “has the potential to be groundbreaking”.

“We’ll be waiting to see what it does to protect victims of online abuse and what measures are included to make the online world safer for children/young people,” she posted on Twitter.

However, Ms Ward noted that “major gaps” in the bill, like the current omission of an individual complaints mechanism, “must be addressed at this next stage”.

In response, Ms Martin has established an expert group to report on the provision of the mechanism, chaired by the former chair of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission Isolde Goggin.

The expert group is to examine whether it is practicable to include an individual complaints mechanism in the bill and, if so, how this may be done.

The group will have 90 days to examine the range of legal and practical matters and to report back to Minister Martin, who can then amend the bill.

Ms Martin said that she would like to see the mechanism included if it is practicable.

“If an individual complaints mechanism can be provided for through the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill then I would like to ensure that this is done.

Expert Group

“I am establishing this expert group, in light of the recommendations of the Joint Oireachtas Committee from their pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill, to examine whether an individual complaints mechanism can be provided for and, if it can, in how it would work in practice.

“The issue of providing for avenues of redress in terms of individual pieces of content in the online world is complex and at, the end of the day, any proposal I bring forward to address this issue must be practical and legally robust.

"I look forward to receiving the expert group’s recommendations.”

Ms Goggin said the legislation raised many questions but said that the mechanism would be challenging to implement.

“The issue of providing for an individual complaints mechanism through the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill raises a number of practical and legal issues yet may also have the potential to have positive effects for individuals affected by harmful online content.

“We must be realistic about the challenges posed by providing for such a system while being aware of its potential benefits and seek to find workable solutions, including by examining best practices in dealing with complaints by bodies in Ireland and internationally. This is exactly what the expert group will do in bringing our recommendations to Minister Martin.”