27 May 2024
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) is disappointed that measures to address toxic algorithms have been removed from Coimisiún na Meán’s Online Safety Code, which is today being submitted to the European Commission for assessment.
A previous draft of the Code included requirements for social media companies to turn off “recommender systems” based on intimately profiling people.
Recommender systems push hate and extremism into people’s feeds and inject content that glorifies self-harm and suicide into children’s feeds.
Recent polling1 conducted by Ireland Thinks, commissioned by ICCL and Uplift, showed that 82% of people across Ireland are in favour of social media companies being forced to stop building up specific data about users’ sexual desires, political and religious views, health conditions and or ethnicity, and using that data to pick what videos are shown to people.
Together with more than 60 organisations across Ireland, ICCL made a submission to Coimisiún na Meán earlier this year urging the action on recommender systems.2
Responding to the decision to remove measures to tackle toxic algorithms, ICCL Senior Fellow Dr Johnny Ryan said:
“This is a dangerous U-turn. In December, Coimisiún na Mean’s draft Code showed the world what leadership in reining in Big Tech looks like. Everybody supports giving users the freedom to decide for themselves whether they can be profiled and fed algorithmic content. We are dismayed that Coimisiún na Mean has removed this essential measure from the Code”.
ENDS/
Notes
Ending artificial amplification of hate & hysteria (December 2023): https://www.iccl.ie/2023/the-european-commission-must-follow-irelands-lead-and-switch-off-big-techs-toxic-algorithms/
Available for comment: Dr Johnny Ryan, Senior Fellow, ICCL
For media queries: ruth.mccourt@iccl.ie/taragrace.connolly@iccl.ie/ 087 415 7162
References
- ICCL and Uplift polling (January 2024): https://www.iccl.ie/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/submission-Appendix-1-Ireland-Thinks-poll-on-Coimisuin-na-Mean-measures.pdf ↩︎
- Joint submission on the draft Online Safety Code: https://www.iccl.ie/news/62-organisations-urge-strong-action-by-coimisiun-na-mean-on-recommender-system-algorithms/ ↩︎