Kerry councillor calls for social media firms to be held liable for content

By Alastair Tibbs, The Kerryman

A Kerry councillor has called for social media companies to be penalised for harmful content amid the Grok sexualised images scandal.

Councillor Breandán Fitzgerald slammed the allowing of social media firms to publish freely as “one of the biggest mistakes”, urging the government to bring forward legislation to treat social media companies the same as traditional publishers.

Social media sites aren’t considered the same under law as traditional publishers, such as news firms or book publishers.

Currently users of social media are held liable for what they say on the platform rather than the social media company itself.

“Social media companies think that they have no responsibility whatsoever,” said Cllr Fitzgerald at a council meeting this week.

“That is completely up to the person or bot in many instances who is saying anything they want and doing anything that the AI tools will allow them to do. This cannot go unchecked.”

“They must be held accountable and they must be held liable for what they allow their users to publish on their social media platforms…its time social media publishers were treated as traditional publishers.”

Cllr Fitzgerald asked for the justice minister, Jim O’Callaghan, and the further and higher education minister, James Lawless, to bring forward the legislation.

Recently, Grok, the AI chatbot developed by X, has become a significant concern for local authorities and regulators due to its potential to manipulate and generate harmful content.

Britain's media regulator Ofcom launched an investigation into X recently to determine whether sexually intimate deep-fakes produced by Grok violated its duty to protect people in the UK from content that could be illegal, under the country's Online Safety Act framework.

At the meeting, Councillor Angie Baily seconded Cllr Fitzgerald’s motion, highlighting the difficulties of sheltering children from AI.

She said it was “absolutely crazy” children were being allowed access with little resistance from the government.

“Social media bosses are also billionaires…and with that they’re able to hide behind veiled curtains where nobody gets to say anything to them,” said Cllr Baily.

“Report after report shows the dangers to our children. Their mental health and even their lives. Social media has been linked to suicide in our young children.”

“Imagine the Irish Times with a picture of me and a little flap up part where you can see me without my clothes on.”

The sales might decrease,” she quipped, “but that’s absolutely insane…it’s absolutely crazy that we can stand for this and allow our children access”