The EU's frontline against digital terrorism
With major Big Tech companies like Meta, X, TikTok, Youtube, and others being based in Ireland, the country plays an <a href=”https://www.europeancorrespondent.com/article?s=The-future-of-EU-social-media-regulation-is-in-Ireland” style=”text-decoration: underline !important;”>essential role in EU online regulation. The Republic's responsibilities extend to monitoring digital terrorism, meaning using the internet for violent acts and disruptive attacks by recognised terrorist organisations.
To do so effectively, the Irish Media Commission (Cnam), has published its decision framework to deal with online terrorism. If hosting service providers with European headquarters in Ireland fail to take down any flagged content, they could be fined up to 4% of their global turnover.
Currently under review by the European Commission, it will be acting as an extra layer of security for users and could impose fines of up to 10% of social media companies' annual turnover.
The Cnam has already faced important challenges. Its star recommendation - turning off recommender algorithms by default - was dropped earlier this year due to the Digital Service Act principle of harmonisation and uniformisation across all member states. Ireland cannot be the only soldier at the gate: more European legislation will be necessary to properly reign in social media.