The Irish Times view on the regulation of social media: first, enforce the rules that are there There may be a case for new controls, but recent Irish and EU laws gives regulators significant powers

From Irish Times (obviously):

Ever since the advent of social media two decades ago, the big companies have argued that the best form of regulation is self-regulation. They have had a considerable degree of success in persuading governments about the merits of this approach.

However, the damaging impact of social media and gaps in the response of the major players have become increasingly evident. And since Elon Musk took over X – the platform formerly known as Twitter – in 2022, the case for self-regulation has been further undermined.

In the guise of being a free-speech absolutist, the platform has descended into a quagmire of hate speech and politically destabilising misinformation. Musk has removed its guardrails against harmful content. What’s more, he has used X to push his own political agenda.

Other issues have underlined the case for action. Social media platforms are widely used to disseminate misinformation and threaten political leaders. Too often, the companies in charge of the platforms appear to have poor controls and are too slow to react.

In response to all this, Taoiseach Simon Harris said recently that the era of self-regulation is over and pledged to hold a meeting of State agencies and other stakeholders to look at further regulation of social media. This is welcome as Dublin is the international headquarters of many of the world’s biggest social media companies. Ireland must thus play a prominent regulatory role.

But regulation is only effective when it is backed up by an adequate enforcement regime. Over the past two years the Government has introduced the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill. More importantly, the EU has passed the Digital Services Act, which addresses illegal content, transparent advertising and disinformation.

The Act is sufficient to tackle many of the abuses taking place across social media platforms. But what is less clear is how it will be enforced by the 27 member states. That is why the most immediate priority must be to ensure that there is robust and coherent enforcement of existing regulation.