Government accused of ‘soft pedalling’ on reforms to regulate big tech

The Government has been accused of “soft pedalling” on moves to crack down on social media misuse because it is “worried about big multinationals”.

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett urged Government parties to back legislation that would require social media platforms to turn off recommender algorithms for under 18s.

Education minister Hildegarde Naughton pushed back against the “reprehensible assertion” that she and her colleagues are not committed to protecting children and women online.

On Friday, European Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier said TikTok’s features including infinite scrolling, autoplay, push notifications, and highly personalised recommender systems “lead to the compulsive use of the app, especially for our kids, and this poses major risks to their mental health and wellbeing”.

An interim report from the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Artificial Intelligence said last month that “recommender systems should be switched off by default and social media companies should be banned from turning on recommender algorithms for accounts used by children”.

Ms Naughton told RTE’s This Week in Politics the Government is working with EU counterparts on an age verification scheme for social media as well as “education and awareness” for young people.

Around three-quarters of Ireland’s corporation tax comes from large US multinationals, with just two sectors – tech and manufacturing – accounting for about 87% of that, according to Ireland’s Fiscal Advisory Council.

Mr Boyd Barrett said despite being a small country, Ireland can and should “stand up” to big tech companies.

Also speaking on RTE, he said: “The concern about these companies profiteering basically through child sex abuse imagery, through misogynistic imagery of women or pushing toxic, dangerous material at children and young people, that outrage and anger is widespread and we see that in Spain and in France, people have reacted.”

He added: “The Government, in my opinion, are soft-pedalling because they’re worried about these big multinationals.”

He said his party had tabled the Online Safety (Recommender Algorithms) Bill 2025 that would ban recommender algorithms for under 18s and require that they have to be actively turned on by adult users, when based on profiling or sensitive personal data.

“So there’s something very concrete we could do, is stop these addictive algorithms which are pushing poisonous, in some cases, obscene, dangerous content at young people, women and so on,” he said.

“Back our bill, if they’re serious about this, but signs on it, they don’t really want to take on these big, big corporations and the billionaires who are profiteering from pumping out poison and obscene material.”

Sinn Fein TD Eoin O Broin said the Government has been “too slow to act”, and his party would be moving to make it an offence to generate intimate images of children and adults.

He added: “Let’s make sure we properly resource an Garda Siochana and the commission to enforce the regulations that we have.

“Because you did mention a number of investigations, yes, but the volume of complaints that have gone in that unfortunately don’t get fully investigated because Gardai don’t have the resources, is far greater than that.

“Tougher laws, tougher enforcement and proper resourcing.”

Ms Naughton said it is “a reprehensible assertion” that the Government is not prioritising online safety.

She added: “Yes, we need to constantly be reviewing the legislation, working with our European counterparts, we are open to ideas from the opposition, absolutely any legislation that comes through, we will consider it.”

Pressed as to whether or not the government would support opposition motions in this area, Ms Naughton said: “I can’t make a decision for Government here. We need to look at that legislation.”