Ireland Unveils EU-Wide Online Safety Code With Strict Censorship, Online Digital ID Verification, And Fines For Big Tech

Ireland is about to start implementing its Online Safety Code in November, with full implementation expected by the middle of next year.

The country’s media regulator (Coimisiún na Meán) is behind these rules that apply in all 27 EU member countries as that concerns online platforms that have their headquarters in Ireland.

The highlight of the Code is the ban on uploading and sharing a wide range of content, both user-generated (“third-party”) and commercial, in case the document defines the content as “harmful” – even in instances where it is actually not illegal under either Irish or EU law.

Critics are referring to this kind of approach as the authorities acting without “any democratic mandate,” but that doesn’t seem to bother them; instead, the highly controversial age verification has also found its way to this seemingly “para-democratic” move that does not need to be approved by Ireland’s parliament.

The age verification requirement has to do with platforms considered to permit “pornography and extreme or gratuitous violence” – and that could affect Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, X, Microsoft’s LinkedIn, Google’s YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, Tumblr, etc., and all their users.

The Irish regulator has decided to use the “money stick” as the main instrument to ensure compliance. Thus any platform that is found to be non-compliant will be ordered to pay the equivalent of some $21.6 million in fines.

🔗SOURCE ➡️ ReclaimTheNet

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