A new body to regulate broadcasters and online streaming services and a new office to oversee safety on the internet are among the features of a new Bill to be approved by Cabinet on Wednesday.
Minister for Arts and Culture Catherine Martin will ask ministerial colleagues to approve the text of the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill, a mammoth piece of legislation that runs to nearly 150 pages.
It will replace the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland – which currently regulates radio and television broadcasters – with a new Media Commission which will also be responsible for the regulation of streaming services such as Netflix.
The Bill will also give the new commission powers to impose a levy on the streaming services.
A planned new online safety commissioner will be charged with policing how social media sites deal with harmful content on their services. The new commissioner will draw up online safety codes, and will have the power to levy fines of up to €20 million or 10 per cent of turnover on social media services that are not compliant with the codes. It is expected that the new commissioner will be recruited in the coming months, and be in place before the Bill has completed its passage through the Oireachtas later this year.
Scrutiny process
Sources said that most of the recommendations of the Oireachtas committee which undertook an extensive pre-legislative scrutiny process of the Bill last year would now be included in the legislation, either as part of the text published on Wednesday or though amendments to be submitted at Committee Stage.
TDs and Senators on the committee sought a significant toughening of the legislation after months of deliberations despite opposition from tech companies.
Campaigners have long sought to hold social media companies accountable for harmful content on their services, and for the way that the services can target vulnerable people with such content, either through their own algorithms of by targeting from other users.
