While most of the country over the last week was understandably focused on the negotiations leading to a new Government, the new announcements by the US-based social media companies may have equal – if not greater – implications for society in the long term.

Europe and the US come to the issue from two very different standpoints. The US enshrines a constitutional right to free speech.

In Europe and particularly in Ireland, there are tight regulations on what can be said in public

This right is interpreted literally in the US with practically no barriers as to what can be said, printed or broadcast. In Europe and particularly in Ireland, there are tight regulations on what can be said in public and particularly what can be printed or broadcast. Standards of truth and decency apply.

The public announcement by Facebook that it will effectively scrap its content-checking process opens the gate to harmful and untruthful content being disseminated without any restraint.

We are already painfully conscious of the damage caused, especially to young, vulnerable people – both male and female – by the posting of undesirable messages and images.

I find it difficult to distinguish the essential difference between putting something up online and broadcasting it on radio or television, or printing it in a newspaper or pamphlet.

If, in the Irish Farmers Journal, a letter was published drawing attention to somebody’s dishonesty and it turns out to have been a false accusation, then the Irish Farmers Journal as publishers would be liable for damages.

The same would apply to RTÉ. The logical solution would be to regard the Facebooks and Xs (formerly Twitter) of this world as publishers in their own right. While this approach is taken by some political parties in Europe, the general European approach is that that ship has sailed and we have to cope with the world as it has evolved. Given the potential for damage that is very clear from unrestrained social media use, the new US platforms’ decisions merit a more considered response from Ireland and the European Union.

The Dan Brennan case

I was surprised to see that in the long-promised review of the Dan Brennan Castlecomer case, the Minister for Agriculture has appointed Sean Brady to carry out the review. My clear understanding was that, following the debates in Dáil Éireann and the commitments given to the Joint Oireachtas Committee chaired by Jackie Cahill at the time, that the chair of the review was to come from outside the State; that this was the unanimous recommendation to the minister, from the Joint Oireachtas Committee and that in fact, the name of a reputable person from outside the country was submitted by the committee to the minister.