Government ‘kicking the can’ to Brussels over X issues, TD claims

The Government appears to be “shirking its responsibility” to tackle online child safety issues, an opposition politician has said.

Meanwhile, the State’s independent media regulator has been asked to explain its “unacceptable” decision not to pursue an investigation into X over alleged breaches of the Online Safety Code.

It comes as the EU Commission continues to investigate X, formerly Twitter, over reports that child sexual abuse material and non-consensual intimate images of adults were generated through the Grok artificial intelligence (AI) tool and disseminated on the platform.

The company had given written assurances to Irish regulators and the Minister of State with responsibility for AI, Niamh Smyth, that such functionality had been switched off “globally” on January 20.

However, People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy revealed to the Oireachtas Committee on AI this week that the “nudify” functionality was still available in other jurisdictions, and to users in Ireland using a VPN to connect through another EU country.

In a letter, Ms Smyth thanked Mr Murphy for his contributions and the “deeply concerning” report.

She said the media regulator, Coimisiun na Mean (CnaM), was using “proper channels” to determine the validity of the company’s claim that it was blocking illegal content on Grok and X.

The opening of formal proceedings by the European Commission relieves CnaM of its powers to enforce the Digital Services Act (DSA) over the suspected infringements, and the regulator is co-operating with the EU-level probe.

However, CnaM is responsible for the Online Safety Framework and could take an investigation under the Online Safety Code.

When it comes to compelling organisations to produce information for their inquiries, CnaM’s executive chairman Jeremy Godfrey has acknowledged the regulator has “more powers” under the Online Safety Code compared with “not quite such good powers” under the DSA.

However, it told the Press Association that there was no investigation into X over the Online Safety Code.

CnaM justified its decision, stating: “Our view is that from a regulatory perspective, this issue is most effectively addressed as a systemic risk under the EU Digital Services Act, ie, effective mitigations to prevent the dissemination of illegal content on the platform (Article 35) as well as the obligation to conduct risk assessments prior to the launch of new features (Article 34).”

Independent Senator Lynn Ruane described this reasoning as “unacceptable”.

She told the Press Association: “They have powers here; they’re choosing not to use them.

“Why have the regulations if we pass the buck to the EU rather than immediately use our own regulations as they stand in the Online Safety Code?

“Using our own regulations doesn’t interfere with EU investigations.

“Ireland is a hub for big tech which poses further urgency for how we implement our laws, investigations and also sanctions – all of which are on the powers of Coimisiun na Mean.”

Coalition figures have insisted that existing legislation is sufficient to deal with the issue of AI-generated CSAM and non-consensual sexualised images of adults.

When asked about what action Government would be taking over the images prior to the Commission launching its investigation on Monday, ministers had stressed the independence of CnaM and said the matter was being considered by the European body.

Mr Murphy criticised this approach from the Government.

He told the Press Association: “It’s very worrying that the Irish Government appears to be shirking its own responsibility to tackle big tech abuses and is instead hiding behind the European Commission.

“It’s very clear that the production of child sexual abuse imagery is a criminal offence under Irish law.

“The state must act to protect its citizens, not kick the can to Brussels.”

In the Dail this week, Mr Murphy said Ireland has a unique responsibility to hold big tech corporations to account because so many of them were hosted here.

However, he said the main approach of the Government appears to be to shrink from taking action and “just put in on the long figure”.

The Taoiseach told him that Ireland has the same responsibility as every other EU member state and said it was “wrong to say we are hiding behind the European Commission”.

Micheal Martin said the enforcement of standards on very large platforms with over 45 million users per week falls under the remit of the Commission.

He said that CnaM was collaborating on this and “not hiding behind the Commission”.

Mr Martin also said that gardai were investigating issues relating to potential CSAM.

Ms Smyth is to meet X in February and has said through a spokeswoman that the Commission investigation will result in “serious consequences” for the company should it be found to have continued to facilitate the sharing of non-consensual intimate imagery and CSAM.

Comment was sought from X and its parent company xAI – which also operates Grok.