New online political advertising law to fill lacuna

Ministers yesterday approved a proposal outlined in the progress report of the Interdepartmental Group on the Security of Ireland’s Electoral Process and Disinformation (IDG), which will be published shortly.

The Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government will lead on drafting heads of a scheme to make provision in legislation for regulation of transparency of online paid political advertising within election periods, in conjunction with the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment and other members of the IDG as appropriate.

Under the proposal, online paid-for political advertisements will be required to be labelled as such and clearly display certain information, or a link to the information, in a clear and conspicuous manner.

The legislation will apply to online platforms, as sellers or intermediaries of political advertising, and buyers of political adverts. The obligation will be placed on the seller to determine that an advert falls under the scope of the regulation.

In a statement, the Government said: “The absence of legislation in this area is recognised by Government as a lacuna. The industry has already taken steps to combat such disinformation but there is general consensus that regulation should not be left to the market.

“This proposal to regulate is limited to online political advertising and is seen as an interim measure until the establishment of a Statutory Electoral Commission which will oversee a wider reform of the electoral processes.”