Need for a statutory duty of care for social media companies- Noone

Dublin Senator, Catherine Noone, has called for a duty of care obligation to be introduced for social media companies, to ensure they do more to help protect people from online abuse and harassment.

Senator Noone, a Fine Gael candidate for Dublin Bay North, said “We had hoped that social media companies would heed our calls to do more to tackle online abuse and harassment; however we have not seen any significant change to date.

“I believe it is now necessary to introduce a statutory duty of care for social media companies that will require them to act in an effective, efficient and timely manner to remove abusive content.”
Senator Noone added, “Recent reports in the UK show that 1 in 5 social media users have suffered harassment, abuse, bullying or fraud. This highlights the extent of the problem and why action must be taken to prevent the situation deteriorating.

“Existing requirements for removal of content already provide for terror related issues. I believe this should now be expanded to cover abuse, harassment and fraud.”