The High Court’s rejection of a challenge by tech company X against Ireland’s online safety code will come as a relief to the Government and the regulator Coimisiún na Meán.
The code is viewed in Government as crucial in protecting children from dangers in the digital world.
But regulation of the tech industry, particularly from Europe, is facing strong opposition in Washington where some politicians argue it could curtail the free speech of Americans.
And while Elon Musk’s X did not succeed on Tuesday, experts believe it is inevitable there will be more litigation in the future over online regulation.
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The online safety code was introduced last year with the then Minister for Media Catherine Martin arguing that it represented “a big step forward in online safety” that would “make all of us, but particularly our children, safer online”.
Last September then Taoiseach Simon Harris told the tech industry that the world of self-regulation was changing.
But in the intervening period, there has been strong pushback from some quarters internationally about the regulation of the tech sector.
In a Washington controlled by Donald Trump such regulation in some cases is characterised as censorship.
In June US secretary of state Marco Rubio warned of visa bans on foreign nationals deemed to be censoring Americans.
He suggested the new policy could target officials regulating US tech companies.
Last week the US House of Representatives judiciary committee issued an interim report that saw the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) as a “foreign censorship threat”.
“European regulators define political speech, humour, and other First Amendment-protected content as disinformation and hate speech, and then require platforms to change their global content moderation policies to censor it.”
Ireland’s online safety code brought the State in line with the EU’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD).
Ms Martin said new 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 code meant platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, X, would be obliged to comply or face fines of up to €20 million, or 10 per cent of annual turnover, whichever was greater.
However, X, in its legal challenge, contended the code impermissibly went further than the AVMSD. It said it covered areas within the scope of another set of rules – the EU’s DSA, which aims to prevent illegal and harmful activities online and the spread of disinformation.
Coimisiún na Meán welcomed the ruling and said it would study it in detail before making further comment.
Dr TJ McIntyre, associate professor in the Sutherland School of Law at UCD, said the High Court ruling was important in the narrow sense that provisions of the code related to age assurance obligations could continue for the time being.
He said there has now been two separate court cases but there was likely to more litigation in the future over online regulation.
