'Commissioner McGrath must tackle social media recommender systems,' TD says
James Cox
The Government "needs to lean on" EU Commissioner Michael McGrath to use his influence to dismantle social media recommender systems which "spread hate and misinformation", according to a TD.
Mr McGrath is EU Commissioner for Democracy, Justice, the Rule of Law and Consumer Protection.
He will be responsible for the forthcoming European Democracy Shield. The legislation is aimed at "safeguarding electoral integrity, strengthening the rule of law, protecting media freedom, supporting civil society, and upholding the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights".
Many advocacy groups have said it is an opportunity to remove social media recommender systems.
Social media recommender systems are algorithms that use user data to suggest relevant content and people, aiming to "increase engagement and personalize user experiences".
However, it is well documented that they give priority to misinformation, hateful and violent content, creating echo chambers.
In an interview with BreakingNews.ie, Limerick TD Connor Sheehan said: "The forthcoming Democracy Shield legislation is designed to tackle the spread of online misinformation and essentially protect European democracy.
"The Government needs to lean on Commissioner McGrath in relation to this. You can really see the European Union can exercise its power in relation to these things when you look at the work that Margrethe Vestager did when she was commissioner. Social media companies need to be forced to disable the recommender system."
Mr Sheehan has highlighted the rise in far-right violence targeting immigrant and minority communities, and he said incidents like the Dublin riots and violent protests around Leinster House will only worsen if action is not taken to address the "toxic" recommender systems.
He said Meta's removal of rumours about Fianna Fáil presidential candidate Jim Gavin was a rarity.
X and TikTok are like the Wild West.
"Meta I know did remove the Jim Gavin posts, but X and TikTok are like the Wild West. There's a recommender algorithm pushing this hateful content at people because it spikes a reaction.
"The fact of the matter is these companies are making billions. We need strong enforcement of the EU Digital Services Act to protect democracy and counter misinformation.
"We've seen a number of significant violent incidents all over Europe stemming from far-right protests. We've had them outside Leinster House, I was elected to the Dáil last December we've had a ring of steel around the place five or six times just since then.
"A lot of that is down to the amplification on social media of this hateful content. You can write to social media companies, you can call on them to do whatever, but the fact is they're making money out of this. I'm very concerned with the rise of AI, that we need to make sure we tackle this because the recommender system that pushes toxic content into people's feeds needs to be disabled."
"It's really about making sure this Democracy Shield legislation makes sure this recommender system - which amplifies an algorithmic bias in favour of hateful content - that the social media companies are forced to disable this."
Mr Sheehan, who is Labour's spokesperson for housing, local government and heritage, pointed to well known Irish far-right agitators, particularly on X (formerly Twitter), who have amassed hundreds of thousands of followers.
"Since Elon Musk took over X, you only need to look at the type of content that gets amplified there and the accounts that get amplified. There are far-right fringe figures all over Europe, and Ireland in particular, with hundreds of thousands of followers. They have this because of the algorithmic bias and the recommender system, there's neither rhyme nor reason otherwise for them to have that sort of following.
"We need to see sanctions and the likes of X, Meta or TikTok, when they're found to have broken the rules or manipulated information, then that means the EU needs to take action.
"We need to have freedom of speech but at the same time it doesn't include the right for people on platforms to get away with inciting violence.
"A number of them on X have anything up to 150,000 followrs. Every time they spread hate, lies and misinformation, it has a huge audience. We are way behind the curve in relation to dealing with this.
"You have individuals on social media inciting these things, we've had huge anti-immigrant protests in the last number of years.
"We have had a number of buildings set on fire... this is getting worse. It's not even that it might in the future, it is already getting worse."
'Two-pronged approach'
Mr Sheehan called for a "two-pronged approach". He said the Government should urge Mr McGrath to include recommender systems in the Democracy Shield Legislation, while also calling on the Government to apply pressure to the social media companies with European HQs in Ireland.
He also said young people should be taught how to spot online misinformation, and called for additional powers for media regulator Coimisiún na Meán.
"It needs to be tackled first at European level and the Democracy Shield is the way to do that, but at the same time we need to ensure Government very strongly conveys to this social media companies, who have very favourable taxation rates here... they're not here for the good of their health... they need to be forced to act in relation to this.
"What really annoys me is you see really reductive stuff from political parties, for example looking to ban teenagers having smartphones in school. Prohibition is never the solution to these things, it just doesn't work.
"Knowledge is power which means we need to see a huge ramping up in terms of digital literacy for young people. Young people need to be taught properly how to identify disinformation, at the same time we need to tackle, as does the European Union, the root cause which is people are having this stuff pushed at them relentlessly.
"I have seen people, even from my clinics and canvassing, saying things to me that are blatantly untrue that I know they have gleaned from the internet."
