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THE HEAD OF the Electoral Commission has said that people should “treat every day like April Fool’s Day” when it comes to elections because of the threat posed to Irish democracy by disinformation.
Art O’Leary told the Committee on European Union Affairs today that An Coimisiún Toghcháin (the Electoral Commission) was trying to engage with voters to encourage them to “be their own factcheckers” ahead of elections.
“I’d love a feature film about voting,” O’Leary said about efforts to inform voters.
O’Leary cited research which shows that, of 53 countries studied between 2016 and 2021, 935 cases of disinformation targeting national electoral events were recorded.
A dispute erupted almost immediately after questions from committee members began, leading to Independent Senator Sharon Keoghan accusing the committee chairperson, Colm Brophy of Fine Gael, of censorship.
Keoghan, who was scheduled to ask the first questions to O’Leary as she had to leave early, was interrupted by Brophy after asking questions about what she called disinformation put out by government parties and politicians about the upcoming referendums.
Keoghan’s questions were ultimately put to O’Leary after they were rephrased so that they would be applicable to the focus of the meeting: EU elections. They included an inquiry into whether a class system would be implemented where some people would be factchecked but “government ministers and their cronies in the media” were allowed to lie.
O’Leary responded that the commission had limited powers when it came to factchecking and would focus narrowly on misinformation about the electoral process.
He said wider issues of misinformation were in the remit of the media regulator, Coimisiún na Meán.
However, O’Leary also said that the commission would put out truthful information about the electoral process, and correct misinformation that could directly affect the electoral process, such as false claims that the date of voting had changed, or that people would be put into a raffle if they signed their names on their ballots, likely spoiling them.
O’Leary gave other examples of false claims including baseless accusations of vote rigging, or saying that a ballot box was discarded without votes being counted, or that a polling station had been burnt down, saying that these should be monitored and labeled on social media.
O’Leary noted that the commission sought to balance freedom of expression with the right of the electorate to be properly informed, saying that he believed that Irish people were generally smart enough to evaluate political arguments and that too much interference might have a “chilling effect” on public commentary.
In response to an inquiry by Labour’s Brendan Howlin, O’Leary said that the Commission currently had 25 staff members, divided roughly equally between electoral operations, electoral integrity, and corporate services.
He noted that they intended to double this number by the end of the year and that they had a budget to contract outside expertise, for example, to temporarily employ people with digital skills unavailable in the public service.
An air of disbelief could be detected in the committee when O’Leary said that he was very happy with the level of respect from social media companies he had spoken with, and that they had outlined their plans to deal with electoral misinformation, as well as giving the commission direct channels to senior personnel who should be informed of misinformation on their platforms.
“They are very, very conscious that their platforms are a place where quite serious damage can be done to democracy,” O’Leary said.
O’Leary specified that they had talked with Meta; X (formerly Twitter); TikTok; Google; and Technology Ireland, a tech business umbrella group, and said he was “very, very happy with the level of engagement”.
He also said that the commission would “hold everyone to account for the promises that they made” after the “white-hot heat of an election campaign” was over.
Robert Troy, Fianna Fáil noted that it might be too late by then, which O’Leary conceded, but added that the commission would have to quickly learn some harsh lessons.
“It would be a sad day,” O’Leary said, if he ever had to go to the High Court to compel a social media company to take down a post or ban a user.
O’Leary also took time to praise Joe Duffy for highlighting an issue that had caused considerable confusion: whether you have to submit a PPS number to remain registered for elections. (You don’t, read more here).
“People think there’s one big register. There are 28 separate registers in this country, and they don’t talk to each other,” O’Leary said, explaining why the commission wanted to reduce duplicate entries and needed identifiers like PPS numbers to do this accurately.
O’Leary said that, after Duffy’s radio show had aired, a surge of 4,500 people checked the register and updated their details.
O’Leary also said that the Commission hopes to be able to encourage more of the population to vote, including young people, Travellers and people with disabilities.
The committee was told that there were plans to make all political advertising transparent, meaning that the person who paid for the and what groups it targeted should be made clear.
The accessibility of voting centres was also discussed, with O’Leary saying that it would be a big focus of the commission on election day. He noted that inaccessible polling stations were “dramatically reducing” in number, down to 23 at the last count. He said they aimed to reduce this to zero.
O’Leary also said that the commission would look into redesigning ballot papers to make them easier to read, including possibly randomising the order that candidates are listed, so that people with names that appear earlier alphabetically don’t have an advantage.
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What is the reason behind not being allowed to comment on the Genocide in Gaza. Comments were open on stories relating to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia until after the attacks on 7th of October. There is very little anti-Semitism in Ireland, Most people detest what the State of Israel are doing but don’t automatically blame the international Jewish community for Israel’s actions.
Thejournal.ie can not pass themselves off as free and impartial journalists if they pick and choose which stories are open for comment.
@The Green Monkey: Well said.
@The Green Monkey: By shutting down criticism of Israel, The Journal is complicit in Israeli atrocities.
@The Green Monkey: Most people haven’t studied the Hamas Covenant 1988 – where they vow to wipe out, not just Israel but all of us that done believe in their rubbish.
Meanwhile, our Tanaiste, Micheál Martin, accuses Israel of disinformation for saying that UN workers were involved in the Oct 7 massacre, when video images are online that show hostages being taken away in UN vehicles and Hamas and UN sharing the same office block.
There is some merit to the Israeli ambassador stating that there isn’t balanced comment in Ireland regarding the Palestinian issues.
And probably not a very deep understanding by many commentators, I would suggest.
And that’s not saying that all Israeli are wonderful people – at least not until compared to their neighbours
@Thomas Sheridan: and what’s the excuse for what’s happening in the West Bank?
Like telling us politicians lie to get elected or that we never bailed out the banks was that true or misinformation……depends on whos using it like most things
@Gregory C Donoghue: NAMA acquired loans for €31.8bn which were worth €26.2bn at the time of acquisition. It paid €31.8bn for these loans – €26.2bn being their market value at the time plus an extra €5.6bn in State Aid to Participating Institutions. NAMA has completed the full repayment of the €31.8bn it borrowed to acquire these loans.
Yeah just vote No, the way some ministers have been caught out over the last few days, I wouldn’t trust them to tell the time.
No one believes politicians or their stooges any longer. They are getting desperate.
Journalism as a profession is dead. Those who describe themselves as journalists are merely purveyors of propaganda. They are told what is expected of them, and if their scribblings don’t follow the narrative, it isn’t published and they are out of a job!
@Brian Hunt: Gemma is, according to herself, an investigative journalist. That made me smile.
@Brian Hunt: I spoke to a journalism student, asked did their college encourage investigative journalism.
He said no. So speaks volumes.
Every day is Fools Day with this Government
It’s a pity this commission wasn’t set up before the last election when Mehole said he wouldn’t go into coalition with fg. How many thousands of votes did ff get extra by him saying this. Or even before when roger rabbit said oh that’s what you do at election time I.e. LIE.
That bit about separate registers is a problem. At one time many years ago I was on 3 registers, in 3 constituencies. My home in Wicklow, my student address in Dublin, and a work address where I lived for 8 months. There needs to be 1 central register where people are coded by a PPSN. All citizens are allocated one and it is a unique identifier. Though personally I believe this country needs a National ID card, along the lines of the Public Services Card. It would streamline many services.
@William Slevin: Would a national id card not be an obvious way to distinguish between citizens and others, which seems to be whatbyou, in particular, wish for?
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: I’m 100% in favour of a national ID card: 1 specific card for 1 specific person. I cannot find anything wrong with that.
Anyone who thinks Democracy works in this country needs to think again. The government only accepts the answer they want. If the voting population decides to say no when the politicians wanted a yes then we are just made to vote again. Anyone remember the Lisbon treaty?
Democracy in Ireland is a waste of time as we’re he’ll bent on voting in the same corrupt c###s over and over again because our daddies voted for they’re daddies.
Serious damage can be done to your head by listening to this know-all!
Since the beginning of time disinformation has been .yoused to miss lead the people and you have no call to ask hue I mean
When Martin stated …There was NO BANK Bailout…Was that the truth or disinformation? When the Attorney General got Varadkar off the hook concerning Zappone gate with rules discovered which came a a shock to the Hospitality sector… Was that the truth or DISINFORMATION? …FFG since the foundation of this state have spread so much disinformation and censorship that their pretend hypocrisy is comical.
@Gregory C Donoghue: Facts seem to elude you constantly. Perhaps you could explain the Billions of taxpayers money that was taken from the economy to repay for the gangsterism of the banks and developers facilated by FF/ Greens. The added mess created by FG/ So called Labour..Remember they enforced austerity to repay for the gangsterism of the above…As for Varadkar…Attorney General got him off the hook by inventing rules the Hospitality industry didn’t know about…The leaking of confidential government documents by Varadkar has not gone away…PS how many fake profiles are you using at the moment?
One doesn’t have to look any further than these very comment sections to see those who have been conned by disinformation.
They spout nonsense about comments sections under articles relating to the conflict in Gaza as being part of some pro-Zionist agenda when the truth is that comments are not allowed as contributors can’t be trusted to be civil. They don’t have the brain capacity to understand this.
The disinformation crew will often call others ‘woke’ too. This isca giveaway. They claim others are sheep who just fall into line whilst the disinformed themselves are not aware that they are being used as pawns by others. Again, this is due to their brain capacity.
From what I have seen, most of the disinformation regarding politics comes from the right, those who are full of hate, those who live in conspiracy land and let’s be honest, Trump supporters knowingly swallow and share so much disinformation without really considering that it is nonsense.
The spread of disinformation has one advantage, it really is a very easy way to identify simpletons. The number of simpletons is staggering.
@Sun Rise: wow, long comment but well written (a feast for the eyes with no grammatical horrors, hats off to you, it’s becoming rare in here!). Perfectly sums many ‘moderate’ people’s thoughts
@Sun Rise: You are trying to take the high moral ground and call out people for not being civil.
But you take it upon yourself to declare that people you don’t agree with are being used as pawns, have limited brain capacity, can’t be trusted, lack awareness, are full of hate, live in conspiracy land, are simpletons….
You and Mr Putin seem to have a lot in common. Have you considered using his methods to deal with these dysfunctional people that you so eloquently identified.
Going to vote YES not for the Government, which is failing in a few major problems, but against the hordes of misinformers, conspirationists and in general the people who can’t think for the general good but for their tiny, mean life where if they feel they failed themselves they need to drag in their own fate everybody else.
@Chris: I honestly think this is the most ridiculous post I have seen on this site and that says a lot.
“I’ll vote to spite ppl who are interested in the future of their country”
Just read up on both sides and make a decision like an adult, one that you can actually believe you did what was right for the country.
@William Slevin: no, I am deeply informed and that’s why I realised all these people who only see conspiracies are doing this because of personal failures in their lives. Actually I read the website, I got the flyer in the post, like everybody else, I read about it and it’s gonna be Yes. We live in 2024, not in 1988, like our big red neighbour east of EU want us to live.
@R B: QED.
@Gregory C Donoghue: You have to be 18 to vote.
Dont politicians lie and spread disinformation?
It’s been a slippery slope into a deep state of censorship, that we’ve been on for some time now and it looks like it might get worse.
It’s this government’s fault. “DURABLE RELATIONSHIP”
Ah jaysus, what’s going on here – auld Willie Slevin is posting on the day before dole day. Normally his credit is out, his leccie meter is beeping and he’s recycling the butts of his rollies by now – he must have had a winner on the horsies!
He’s also not capable of any genuine critical thinking. He mentions that the average age of Covid deaths is 83 and then goes to say the average life expectancy is 83 as if it means that those people would have died anyway.
His brain isn’t capable of realising that whilst the average life expectancy is 83, this means that those who are actually 83 today do not have a future life expectancy of 0, rather they will live on average for another 3 years, the pre 83 deaths bring down the average.
Confirmation bias, blinkers, poor education (as evidenced by his grammar) and the fact that he subscribes to exactly the same conspiracy theories as all of the other ‘do your own researchers’ exposes him for what he is.
Disillusioned with his own life and looking for an imaginary bogieman to blame it on.
Failure of a life Willie, try harder.
The simpletons are busy.
Then you need to disinform the disinformationists.
@William Slevin: *you’re
“at the age of age that the life expectancy” -it’s ironic that someone so anti-immigrant doesn’t even speak english.
“would go along why to explain” – as above
“ your constant delusional personal attacks are plain to see you can’t refute” – and again, as above
“ and when your try once in a blue moon” – yep…
Seriously Willie, I’m sorry to say it but, not only are you demonstrably uneducated, you don’t even show any inclination towards trying to improve.
Now answer me this, if you are clearly showing absolutely no interest in trying to educate yourself to even a basic level, why do you think that other people might be interested in what you have to say?
You can’t even convince yourself to think!
have your say