A legal challenge brought by Elon Musk’s social network platform against the online safety code introduced by the country’s media regulator is scheduled to commence on Tuesday.
Twitter International Unlimited Company, which operates X, alleges in High Court proceedings that Coimisiún na Meán engaged in “regulatory overreach” in its approach to restrictions on certain video content.
Coimisiún na Meán is contesting the case.
The company contends that the new online safety code contradicts Irish law requirements for protecting and balancing fundamental rights, particularly freedom of expression.
The company wants the court to quash the commission’s decision last October to adopt certain sections of the code, which applies binding rules to video-sharing platforms headquartered in Ireland. It obliges the platforms to protect people, especially children, from harmful video and associated content.
It is also seeking the court to overturn the commission’s decision to apply the code to X.
Coimisiún na Meán, in a statement late last year, in advance of the court action, said that as Ireland’s regulator for online safety it had developed rules and regulations rooted in Irish and EU legislation following extensive consultation.
“We will engage in this litigation process and will defend the online safety code and its objective of keeping people, especially children, safe online,” it said at the time.
At the launch of the code last October the then Minister for Media Catherine Martin said it represented “a big step forward in online safety” that would “make all of us, but particularly our children, safer online”.
She said the rules would introduce “real accountability” for online video-sharing platforms and require them “to take action to protect those that use their platforms, including by having robust complaints-handling procedures and introducing effective age-verification”.
The legal case brought by Twitter International takes particular issue with a section of the code that requires video-sharing platforms to preclude users from uploading or sharing video the code defines as “restricted”.
Falling under the code’s “restricted” heading is video content that bullies or humiliates a person or that promotes eating disorder behaviour, suicide, self-harm or behaviour prejudicial to the safety of children, including dangerous challenges.
Twitter International claims the definition is “broadly framed” and capable of encompassing a “wide spectrum of content, including legal content”.
The company notes that the EU’s audiovisual media services directive draws a clear distinction between illegal content, which includes incitement to hatred, and “legal but harmful” content.
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Twitter was renamed as X in July 2023 following its acquisition by Mr Musk, one of the richest men in the world and a close ally and supporter of US president Donald Trump.
Over recent months the Trump administration has strongly hit out at what it sees as attempts to censor free speech on US-owned social media platforms.
Last week, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said his country would impose visa bans on foreign nationals it deemed to be censoring Americans.
He suggested the new policy could target officials regulating US tech companies.
Mr Rubio said in a statement that a new visa restriction policy would apply to foreign nationals responsible for censorship of protected expression in the US. He said it was unacceptable for foreign officials to issue or threaten arrest warrants for social media posts made on US soil.
“It is similarly unacceptable for foreign officials to demand that American tech platforms adopt global content moderation policies or engage in censorship activity that reaches beyond their authority and into the United States,” he said.
