Image: PA Images Image: PA Images FACEBOOK HAS BEEN accused of being disingenuous in its submission on a new Bill which seeks to regulate online political advertising.
The Bill proposes to set up a statutory, independent Electoral Commission for Ireland, which would require social media companies to regulate online political advertising in the run-up to elections. “There is a very real possibility that online platforms could find themselves under two inconsistent regulatory regimes and placed in the undesirable and avoidable situation where they would have to choose between violating Irish law or violating EU law.”But the claims that Facebook would have to choose between violating Irish law and European law were dismissed as disingenuous by Sinn Féin TD Eoin Ó Broin.
But every member state, because each electoral process is different, is absolutely within its rights if it wants to set a different or higher or specific set of requirements during elections. “So rather than as your statement, I think this disingenuously suggests, that people have to choose between ‘violating Irish law or violating EU law’, because I would hope Facebook never chooses to violate any law.