Watchdog braces for battle with social media giants [Video]

Ireland’s media regulator expects social media giants such as Elon Musk‘s X to resist efforts to control harmful content online, despite Taoiseach Simon Harris‘s promise to get tough on social media companies that allow criminal content and threats on their platforms, writes Colm McGuirk.

It comes as far-right agitators this week – across major social media platforms – called for the destruction of a site being prepared to house international protection applicants at Thornton Hall, north Co. Dublin.

One of the aims of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), introduced in February, is to rein in an increasingly fractious online environment, described by the Taoiseach as a “wild west” and seen as responsible for fanning the flames of recent unrest.

In Ireland – a key battleground for the Act’s success given the number of tech firms with headquarters here – media regulator Coimisiún na Meán (CnaM) is responsible for implementing the new law.

But a source this weekend said the …