Social media platforms routinely promote extreme or false content, Oireachtas committee to hear
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Social media firms are "routinely promoting sensationalist, extreme, and false content" on their platforms to drive engagement, TDs will hear today.
The Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) is to tell TDs and senators on the Oireachtas media committee today that misinformation activity has increased in recent years, particularly in the wake of the pandemic.
“The role of social media platforms, large and small, cannot be overstated,” the ISD will tell politicians.
“Social media platforms — driven by business models that prioritise engagement over safety — routinely promote sensationalist, extreme or false content, rapidly spreading it to vast audiences.”
The group is due to warn that it can take journalists and researchers “much longer” to identify, analyse, and debunk claims made on social media, meaning that monitoring social media is essential to track “the evolving dynamics of disinfomation”.
It adds that conspiracy networks “boomed during the pandemic” and that this has become an intersection for misinformation and disinformation, as well as hate and extremist communities.
The group will say that there are currently three major challenges, which include the fact that social media platforms are “inconsistent in enforcing their own rules” on extremism, hate speech, and disinformation.
It will also outline that social media algorithms recommend misinformation, disinformation, and hateful content to users.
The ISD is also due to say that platforms have restricted access for researchers in recent years, which can make the identification of online harms much more difficult for them and for policymakers.
They say that with emerging technologies such as generative AI, there are now growing digital threats to democracy.
“A robust whole-of-society approach is essential, one that encompasses proper regulatory oversight and enforcement, meaningful platform transparency and data access, and investment in digital literacy education to empower citizens to critically evaluate the evolving information environment,” they will state.
The Hope and Courage Collective, which tracks far-right organisations, is also due to speak at the committee, where it will outline the “huge growth and spread of hate online and offline”.
The group is due to say that this is being led by a “small core of ideologically committed far-right actors who consistently stoke hate, fear, and violence”.