A CAMPAIGN group gathered outside the constituency office of Limerick TD and Minister for Media, Communications, and Sport, Patrick O’Donovan, over what they describe as the Minister’s “failure to rein in big tech”.
Members of the Uplift campaign group this Friday (July 25) donned masks sporting the faces of Mark Zuckerbeg and Elon Musk in an effort to “put a spotlight on this government’s refusal to take big tech harms seriously”, the group said.
While outside the Minister’s Newcastle West constituency office, protesters handed out leaflets, put up posters, and spoke to members of the community.
Uplift organised the ‘People’s Inquiry on Big Tech Harms’ in October 2024, in which testimony was offered on what the group believed to be the harm of big tech firms across health, youth, democracy, technology, mental health, and climate.
In January, the group published a report with a series of key recommendations outlining what it believes the government needs to do to increase internet safety.
Uplift said it has requested a meeting with Minister O’Donovan but no meeting has taken place to date.
In previous emails to subscribers of its mailing list earlier this month, Uplift called for volunteers to join in the protest outside the Minister’s office.
Speaking following the protest, Uplift campaigner Patrick Helleher said: “Whether it’s sharing a painful diagnosis with family or confiding in a friend that money is tight, what we share (online) with others is deeply personal. But right now this government allows social media corporations to capture our most personal moments, censor what we see, and decide what we’re sold based on the colour of our skin, our age, or the places we’ve been.”
“As the Minister responsible for social media, Patrick O’Donovan has the power to rein in big tech and make the internet a safer place for us all.”
In a statement to the Limerick Post, a spokesman from Minister O’Donovan’s office said that “the issue of online safety for children is a government priority”.
“The Minister has had regular meetings with Online Safety Commissioner Niamh Hodnett and Coimisiún na Meán on this issue and was pleased to see Part B of Coimisiún na Meán’s Online Safety Code come into force this week.”
The spokesman was referring to new obligations requiring video-sharing platforms headquartered in Ireland to put measures in place “against harmful online content such as cyberbullying, incitement to hatred or violence, and child sex abuse material, as well as obliging platforms which allow pornography or gratuitous violence to implement robust age assurance methods so that children cannot normally see such content”.
Regarding invitations to the Minister from Uplift, the spokesman said that Minister O’Donovan was “unable to meet with the group in recent months, his response to them recommended that they seek a meeting with Niamh Hodnett, on this issue, to share the details of their report and to discuss how An Coimisiún is making the online world safer, in particular, for children”.
“Minister O’Donovan subsequently wrote to the group to update them on his meetings with Niamh Hodnett and An Coimisiún, and to recommend again that they seek a meeting with the Commissioner.”
