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REPRESENTATIVES FROM FACEBOOK and Twitter are to speak to the Oireachtas communications committee about social media tomorrow.
They will speak to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications during the second of its hearings on the challenges facing individuals, families and communities from the rise of social media, including cyber-bullying and online harassment.
Social media
Sinead McSweeney, Director of Public Policy for Europe, Twitter; and Simon Milner, Policy Director for the UK & Ireland, Facebook will appear before the committee tomorrow morning.
Minister Pat Rabbitte spoke to the committee today, and said that government plans to ensure that social media is used in a responsible manner were “not about politicians”.
The minister heard from a number of deputies and senators, including Fidelma Healy-Eames, who somewhat confusingly described the term ‘fraping’ on social media as “where you’re raped on Facebook”.
Chairman of the Committee Tom Hayes TD said today that they look forward to hearing from Twitter and Facebook on the safeguards that currently exist on their platforms.
In particular, we wish to explore what mechanisms currently exist for both users and non-users of Facebook and Twitter who feel wronged to uphold their individual rights.
At the first meeting today, officials from the Office for Internet Safety spoke on the issues. Hayes said that there “is a fine balance to be struck between allowing freedom of speech on these channels while not impacting adversely on people’s individual rights”.
A key focus of our Committee in these hearings is therefore to explore possible policies can be put in place to increase awareness of cyber-bullying and enhance accountability for the minority who abuse online channels. At these early stages of our hearings, it is clear that any recommendations will include a joined-up approach to this area, which might encompass those government departments in the areas of Justice, Communications and Education.
The meeting commences tomorrow 7 March at 9.30am in Committee Room 3, LH 2000. Committee proceedings can be followed live at this link.
Members of the public can also have their say and make a submission on the issue.
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can’t wait to watch them ask about fraping!
I’d imagine there will be a spot of grandstanding, pontificating followed by a dazzling display of ignorance from our representatives. *sighs*
odd that the biggest irish online site and community @boards_ie don’t seem to have been invited
Indeed. I thought that a glaring omission as well.
They’re only inviting serious websites.
It’s a serious site an Irish employer creating revenues and when you have garda sending people to the shooting forum so they can under stand the changes in the law, it is a hell of a resource.
Yeah the “Ladies Lounge” has some real thought provoking issues. Today it’s “Things you want to say to your boyfriend or ex boyfriend”.
Another cynical and sickening ploy to grab a bit of ‘good’ publicity for themselves. You are fooling no-one, Lizard people.
Censorship dressed up as tackling bullying. Suppression of the truth by thieves and gangsters is what this is all about.
The bullying problem is down to bad parenting and not socail media. If a child has no regard or empathy for other people it will have manifested itself long before it turns it cyber bullying. But too many parents are so wrapped up in themselves to see this. Oh, he’s just being a teenager! Or going through a phase. How often have we heard that? And who is supplying them with this technology? Your average teenager is not going to be able to pay for a smart phone with a saturday job or pocket money. And then, you get the excuses for the computer, oh they need if for school. Perhaps so, but that doesn’t mean they need the internet 24/7 Plug in the modem when they need it, when they finish their homework, lock it away. If they want a facebook account, YOU create it and keep the password. Log them in and log them back out again and change the pasword frequently. That way you can see what they are doing online, if they are being bullied and changing the password regularly cuts down the chances of the account being hacked. Fidelma Healy-Eames, who got confused with Frapping, which last time I looked was nothign more than posting a silly message on a friends open facebook page, Not account hacking or being raped as she suggested, made the point about children sexting naked pictures of themselves to their friends, well I would suggest that has more to do with the way the child has been raised and the values and self worth, or lack therof, imparted by the parents. It’s not the fault of social media any more than it’s the fault of the phone manufacturer. If you leave a window wide open and your child falls out of it, do you blame the window manufacturer? 20 years ago it was television that was being blamed for making kids anti-social, yet parents still plonked their kids in front of it to keep them quiet….
Great news. The cyber bullying must be put to an end and I welcome news like this.
Social media sites are not re problem. BULLIES ARE. Dressing down Facebook and twitter is pointless to the point of being laughable. Dinosaur government
Is this the official Iona Institute line?
Max, which is why something is needed in Social media policy to put an end to bullying, something is needed for the bullied and pressure put on the social media sites to up their game in clamping down this behaviour. Bullies are a problem, but I must admit that I am far less likely to meet the behaviour I do offline or be bullied than online these days. Social media is a hot plate when it comes to bullying and most bullying is taking place online nowadays and the problem needs to be addressed and tackled sooner rather than later. There is freedom of speech and then there is the freedom to harass and incite hatred, the former being absolutely ok and the latter having its consequences.
To control bullying you need to eliminate fake accounts. That’s pretty much impossible to do. How many troll morons have multiple accounts and comment on the journal? Some have 3-4 different accounts just to spout their bile. Fake accounts need to be tackled but how? After that, anyone who wants to bully will be relatively easy to identify, pseudonym or not
No Stephen,see this is the problem with this,shams like you accusing people of bullying you,when in fact all they are doing to pointing out the ridiculousness of your posts.You could continue on with that insanity,unchecked,just like the way many here like to use the term “Troll”,when most don’t even understand the meaning of the term.Just another means to stifle debate and disagreement!!!
You know one of the major causes of bullying to child in school is ??? Poverty,let’s see the government tackling that first….Oh wait a minute.
I am not expert on the whole social media bullying debate but what seems impossible might just be possible and will leave all methods to them. Identifying someone who is bullying you is easy as you say after that, but I got harassment from FB person, reported it to Facebook and its been almost a week and I have not had any update from Facebook staff on the incident which is very serious one.
Right now social media have a clause in which they have a free get of jail card in which if something goes wrong because someone reported something to them and they didnt act on it, it has nothing to do with them and they are free to not bear any responsibility for what happened even though they ignored all reports and warning signs prior to it.
That kind of thing needs to stop Max and its time now to put pressure on these sites to bring heavier moderation to their forums and comment feeds.
Facebook are very slow to close accounts because of their connection beliefs. You close one account and that could effect 10 or more others and so on. It’s an archaic and incorrect assumption but they seem content to aer on the side of ignorance. They only need to fix their own problems, it their users
“Right now social media have a clause in which they have a free get of jail card in which if something goes wrong because someone reported something to them and they didnt act on it, it has nothing to do with them and they are free to not bear any responsibility for what happened even though they ignored all reports and warning signs prior to it.”
You have something to back this up Stephen,right???
Thanks max. You are right, its their own problems they need to fix, but put legal pressure on them and take away their get out of jail card for not fixing those problems and you will see them get off their backsides quick as lightening in order to fix those problems. That is why this issue needs to be addressed right now and social media sites put under the thumb.
So no source Stephen,nothing to back up your claim???
Thank you for proving my point!!!
Talking of applying Legal Pressure when speaking in terms of Facebook is (I’m sorry to say) just a ‘buzz word’. There is very little government can do. All comes to all they can simply move their office elsewhere and we have more unemployed. That’s a huge drastic leap of logic I know but it’s a worst case scenario
Ru NI digs, when your posts become more charitable and less aggressive, I will respectfully respond to you. However I am not here to convince you that I am right and spend endless hours gathering the research and proof to show you I am right. It is up to you to read my comment and take the appropriate stance of researching this yourself.
Max thanks for the discussion.
No Stephen,when you make outlandish claims,the onus is on you to provide a source.Also why would you need to “spend endless hours gathering the research and proof”,shouldn’t you be able to put your hand to it,so to speak,or not bookmarked ???
The point is Stephen,you are talking nonsense and you accuse me of being “aggressive” because I have called you on spreading falsehoods.You see,once again you have helped prove my point further,just change the word “aggressive” to “bullying”,it’s exactly the same thing.
Stephen I have debated with fundamentalist Christians many times,I know all the tricks that are used to try and stifle debate,you are a rank amateur in comparison my friend ;-)
I don’t comment much here but have to say you a muppet and a troll. And as for the gov, their the bully’s.
I think it’s good that the issue is being discussed. Ireland has a bigger role to play in the matter than most other nations do. Since many of these services have their EMEA headquarters in Ireland, it means that our laws and data protection regulations etc are pretty much applicable to people not just here but all over the world.
Some of the Senators haven’t a clue what they’re on about though!
In afraid you havent a clue what you are talking about. Their business is here purely to launder money/avoid taxes (Double Irish, Yahoo it).
Their server farms are not. So where ever the data and equipment is situated, those are the laws that have governence, if any.
You’re wrong. The offices are in Ireland, so for all intents and purposes they are operating out of Ireland. The Data Protection Commissioner has jurisdiction over ensuring that the companies comply with Irish and European legislation. Legislation that may change as a result of these talks.
If your child is the victim of bullying through Facebook then take them off Facebook. Don’t let’s make it harder for the rest of the people that don’t abuse social medias platform.
I’m still laughing at the fraping comment, it’s both hilarious and really worrying at the same time.
The thing with this statement is that the people that dont use facebook or know what a frape is will go along with this ridicules statement. Just goes to show they dont do any proper research on it. Would be funny if it wasnt internet freedom being chipped away at.
People wouldnt leave their bank account or e mails logged on, its easy to log out of facebook to stop this.
And charging people to tweet or update their status, another ridicules idea of people that obviously have never used it. There will always be a way to remain anonymous to hide your ip address.
ACTA & SOPA were stopped & now they are trying to eat away at our internet freedom in a way as disguising it as stopping the bullying. Internet freedom being fought for and the war drums are banging !
to FG /lab (you will not silence the people , try as you might, this is one you will not win (so go take your facisim, ideas back to the drawing board ) , here’s a novel idea you could try
education , education education (starting in primary school)………………………………….that will help (it doesn’t take a lot of working out),
Frape! Frape! Frape!
Good for facebook to kwno for this news
about time the gang were brought to foot and dealt with for their wrong doing in taking peoples good name
so i guess you will be there then Harold. best of luck old chap. do keep us informed. Hey odds are there will be media there so make sure you have big sign. If i may be so bold as to recommend ” down with this sort of thing”
cheerio old chap
you have two fake names and maybe more that i dont know off, its for cons like you that are so angry that you are not in controll of your brain and act in an evil and wrong way against the law destroying peoples right to a peacefull life
Children under the age of 13 are not allowed to have a twitter or facebook account, by the T&C of those sites.
Parent who allow children to lie and have accounts are placing them in harms way.
If you won’t let your child go wander in the city centre at midnight unsupervised, don’t let them on the internet unsupervised.
Ha! Healy-eames Facebook has been hacked and she’s been fraped. Hilarious.
I’ve no issue with social media. I’ve learned how to post on forums and who to ignore.
I also don’t have kids and I work people who do, these people have children representing themselves on line but the parents themselves don’t and have little understanding of social media.
What strikes me as a common concern for them is how their home does not protect their kids from being bullied. The xbox live accounts seem to feature here too.
Kids are getting stick in school coming home and logging on and are open to the same guff in their living room. Parents don’t know how to handle it, they blame the conduit for the abuse more than the source.
Regardless, some of their kids are being badly affected by it. The whole issue still needs to be addressed, but it needed to be addressed when I was in school, this is just another method for people to use to continue on what they practice during school hours. But it is a problem, there may be no silver bullet to fix it so it may need to be addressed at multiple levels and the big players may need to get involved to help with their platform.
I really think that this is some utter crap when they have way more important stuff to worry about.
have your say