People Before Profit will introduce a new recommender algorithm Bill in the Dáil next Thursday, 22nd January. The Bill will require social media platforms to turn off recommender algorithms for children aged under 18. The Bill will also ensure that recommender algorithms based on profiling or sensitive personal data have to be actively turned on by adult users.
People Before Profit has also called a protest on Saturday at the European Headquarters of X to demand an end to its production of sexual abuse content.
Paul Murphy TD said “Toxic social media algorithms are driving an epidemic of mental health problems among young people, with anxiety, self harm, eating disorders and online addiction all spiralling. They are also driving the rise of the ‘manosphere’ and of violent misogyny.
“Parents are worried about the impact of toxic social media content on their children. Women, people of colour, and LGBTQ+ people are put at risk by the role of recommender algorithms in spreading misogyny, racism, homophobia and transphobia.
“Three-quarters of the public believe that there should be stronger regulation of social media algorithms and in 2024, Coimisiún na Meán’s draft Online Safety Code included a recommendation to turn off recommender algorithms by default. However, this was scrapped following lobbying by the big tech companies. This is another example of how Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael put the profits of big tech ahead of protection of the public.
“This afternoon the Oireachtas Media Committee heard from the Hope and Courage Collective on the urgent need for action to stop big tech social media corporations from spreading toxic and dangerous content online. Edel McGinley, Executive Director of the Hope and Courage Collective described the impact of algorithms as a threat to public health and safety and called for recommender algorithms to be turned off by default.
“In the continuing absence of meaningful Government action, next Thursday People Before Profit will introduce our Online Safety (Recommender Algorithms) Bill 2026. The Bill will require social media corporations to turn off recommender algorithms for children aged under 18 and ensure that recommender algorithms based on profiling or sensitive personal data have to be actively turned on by adult users.
“It's clear the Government is trying to avoid taking meaningful action, but we will not allow this to go unchallenged”.
People Before Profit Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett said “The European Headquarters of X is just a 5 minute walk from Leinster House, but Elon Musk continues to pump out sexual abuse content on an industrial scale through Grok, safe in the knowledge that the Government will delay and distract rather than take meaningful action against him.
“In the Dáil yesterday, the Taoiseach made the suggestion to me that there is something Orwellian about calling for arrests of people mass producing child sexual abuse material. This was a bizarre comment by the Taoiseach and illustrates again that he always puts the interests of big tech corporations before the interests of the public, even on something as serious as this.
“People Before Profit have called a protest at 12 noon on Saturday at X headquarters on Cumberland Place in Dublin 2 to demand prosecutions against X and an immediate stop to its peddling of sexual abuse of women and children.
“Big tech corporations are out of control and the Government has no interest in taking meaningful action to put the protection of women and children before the profits of Elon Musk and other tech billionaires.
“We will not stand for this and we urge people to support the protest at the offices of X on Saturday and to pressure their local TDs to support our recommender algorithm Bill”.