Reddit lodges High Court proceedings against media regulator
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Reddit has lodged Judicial Review proceedings in the High Court against Ireland’s media regulator, over its designation as a firm to be regulated under a new system clamping down on hate-filled and adult content online.
The social media firm, represented by A&L Goodbody, filed the papers against Coimisiún na Meán on Monday. It’s understood the case relates to the recent designation of Reddit by Coimisiún na Meán as a “video-sharing platform service” that will be subject to the regulator’s new Online Safety Code.
Last week, Coimisiún na Meán said that 10 sites would be subject to its new rules including Reddit, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and X, formerly Twitter.
Under the Online Safety Code, out for consultation until the end of this month, heavy penalties are available to Coimisiún na Meán to dish out to platforms that do not adhere to their requirements, with fines of up to €20m for breaches.
Content intended to incite violence or hatred is covered by the draft code and platforms will be obliged to prohibit the uploading or sharing of this content.
It may also include provisions whereby a person may have to upload their passport details or a selfie to designated websites if they want to view pornography, as part of efforts to help protect children from harmful content online.
As well as pornography, other elements that these online platforms will have to clamp down on include cyberbullying, extremely violent content, content which promotes eating disorders, and content which promotes suicide or self-harm.
“Just asking someone if they’re over 18 is not effective,” Coimisiún na Meán executive chairperson Jeremy Godfrey told the . “You have to do more than that before they see that content.”
While Mr Godfrey said his office would not be “absolutely prescriptive” on how the age verification should work, a requirement for a person to show their passport and then a selfie to verify they are the person on the passport could be described as a “gold standard” of verifying a person’s age.
It remained open to platforms designated as video sharing platform services to bring the matter to judicial review within 28 days of the designation, and it took less than a week from this designation for Reddit to initiate proceedings. No date has yet been set for an initial hearing.
Reddit, which calls itself the “front page of the internet”, features forums on all manner of topics with its r/Ireland a popular subreddit here.
Neither Reddit nor Coimisiún na Meán commented on the proceedings.