Twitter challenges Irish proposals for online safety legislation

Twitter is directly challenging the Government’s legislation on online safety with a robust attack on its proposals to impose financial sanctions, block services and make senior management of companies criminally responsible for breaches of the law. In its opening statement to a meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Communications, the social media giant argues that several of the sanctions, as envisaged, would set a “global benchmark” that will have a chilling effect in other regions of the world. “We contend that several of the sanctions as currently envisaged create an unhelpful international precedent: specifically the extent of proposed financial sanctions, the provision for service blocking, and the criminal liability of senior management,” it states. It is the second appearance for Twitter and for Facebook before the committee in the past month. At the last meeting, Twitter and Facebook (especially the former) were lambasted by committee members for allowing anonymous accounts, for trolling, and for abusive content. The Twitter statement is sure to put the company on a collision course with several members of the committee, especially following the controversy surrounding the anonymous account associated with former Sunday Independent columnist Eoghan Harris. “Already we see countries imposing punitive financial penalties or…
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