Social Media

UK government plans to address ‘legal but harmful’ online content threaten freedom of speech and would be ineffective, peers have warned. Instead, existing laws should be enforced properly and any serious harms not already illegal should be criminalised, according to a House of Lords Com

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has written to four of the biggest social media platforms to urge them to do more to prevent illegal gatherings being organised on their platforms during the pandemic. Mr Varadkar has sent letters to Facebook, Twitter, Google and TikTok asking them what more they can do

Proposed legislation to establish a "first-of-its-kind" online safety regulator will undergo pre-legislative scrutiny by an Oireachtas committee starting today. The joint committee on media, tourism, arts, culture, sport and the Gaeltacht, which is progressing the bill "as a priority", will hear a b

Ireland's data protection watchdog has imposed a €450,000 fine on Twitter following a landmark inquiry regarding a data breach. The Data Protection Commission found that the social media giant infringed Article 33(1) and 33(5) of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in terms of a fa

Social media companies will face fines of up to €20 million or 10 per cent of turnover, whichever is higher, for failing to comply with new online safety and media regulation laws. The government yesterday announced new provisions in the finalised general scheme of the Online Safety and Media R

Apple is in breach of European privacy law by tracking iPhone users without their consent, privacy activist Max Schrems has said. The campaigner, who previously waged a legal war against Facebook, forcing it to change the way it transfers data, has now filed complaints to Spanish and German authorit

The highest court in Austria has ruled that Facebook must remove all defamatory comments made about a politician who beat the social media giant in court. Eva Glawischnig, 51, sued Facebook after it refused to remove abusive posts by a user who wrongly referred to her as a “lousy traitor&rdquo

Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC) has launched two inquiries into the processing of children's data by Instagram, part of Facebook Ireland Limited. The DPC said it had received a number of complaints concerning the processing of children's personal data on Instagram and had identified poten

Social media giant Facebook has played down suggestions that it will withdraw from Europe despite suggesting in an Irish court filing that it may have to. Yvonne Cunnane, Facebook's associate general counsel, told the High Court that it was "not clear" how the company could "continue to provide the

A fashion blogger and social media influencer has launched High Court proceedings against Facebook in a bid to identify online trolls. Lisa McGowan, of Lisa's Lust List, claims that she is being "trolled, defamed and stalked" by anonymous Facebook and Instagram users, the Irish Independent repo

Belfast lawyer Paul Tweed has been hired to represent German IT giant Northern Data AG in legal proceedings to be brought against Twitter in the Irish courts, according to reports. The company is bringing proceedings following an alleged "smear campaign" by anonymous social media accounts, which led

William Fry trainee solicitor Karolina Rozhnova considers a recent case in which Twitter was ordered by the High Court to disclose information about a parody account. The High Court has ordered Twitter to disclose information about the identity of creators and controllers of a parody account using t

Ireland's data protection watchdog has reached significant milestones in separate investigations into Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook. In a statement, the Data Protection Commission (DPC), led by commissioner Helen Dixon, has submitted a draft decision in relation to its inquiry into Twitt

Legislative plans to establish a "robust regulatory framework" to deal with the spread of harmful online content have been set out by the Government. Communications Minister Richard Bruton today published the general scheme of the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill, which he would be the first

A lack of real competition to tech giants Google and Facebook could mean people are already missing out on the next new idea from a potential rival, the Competition and Markets Authority has said in a new report. Furthermore, the market position of Google and Facebook may potentially be undermi