Government to blame for public anger.. not social media platforms
✱PLANS to build a water pipeline from the Shannon to Dublin may cost billions more than was previously suggested, a new report has found.
When it’s been proposed by those responsible for the National Children’s Hospital – which went from €600million to €2.2billion – should we be surprised?
Apparently to build the pipeline from the Shannon to the capital could cost up to €10billion but there’s no guarantee that would cover it.
Irish Water admits that 37% of drinking water nationally, and 33% in the Greater Dublin Area, is lost to leaks before it ever reaches our taps.
I’m no engineer but would it not be easier and much cheaper to fix the leaky pipes?
GOVERNMENTS, even relatively liberal ones, don’t particularly like the media and especially elements of it beyond their control.
This is nothing new but the proliferation of social media has been a real headache for those in authority here and across Europe.
In their minds it has given an excessive amount of power to the people but the overriding threat felt by the political establishment is their inability to control not just the message but, more importantly, the narrative.
The Taoiseach has now said the era of self-regulation by social media companies is over. Simon Harris added he is willing to meet X owner Elon Musk and other social media company bosses to discuss his plans for financial sanctions against their platforms.
He went further and warned executives will be held personally liable for failing to remove harmful content when the media regulator completes a new code of conduct for social media platforms.
The Taoiseach said Ireland was “ahead of many, many other European countries in our work in relation to this”. He’s right there because this country will soon be on a par with some of the world’s most restrictive regimes, especially if the Hate Speech Bill becomes law.
Those who have lost their homes and the families of those driven to take their own lives by the criminal activity of financial institutions might well ask why the bankers involved were never held liable.
The rioting in Belfast and the UK at the weekend was totally unacceptable and has no place in a civilised society as are the threats made against politicians.
Anyone who makes threats of violence against anyone, be they on social media or elsewhere, should face the full rigour of the law.
There is plenty of legislation in place to prosecute anyone involved in violence and criminality without the need to enact draconian new laws.
But the fact is this Government has been gunning for social media platforms, especially X, for years and is now using the cover of the riots in another jurisdiction for a clampdown.
Race riots in Belfast are nothing new and they would have largely gone unnoticed if the race on the receiving end were the usual targets, Northern nationalists.
The reality is that there are elements in Northern Ireland that don’t need social media or even an excuse to riot, it’s a form of recreation and has been for decades.
Justice Minister Helen Mcentee said more focus needed to be put on tackling social media algorithms which send people “down a rabbit hole”. But it may be Government policies which the vast majority of the public disagree with rather than X, Instagram or Facebook that are the root cause of public anger.
Minister Mcentee told RTE’S Morning Ireland that social media users become focused on particular issues and fail to get the full picture by “listening to the mainstream media”.
The minister is presumably suggesting the public take their lead from the very limited pool of panellists who consistently turn up on RTE’S current affairs programmes.
These tightly-controlled discussions could well be described as government algorithms which steer the public away from controversial issues such as immigration.
Besides, in an open and supposedly free democracy no section of the media has the right to set the agenda. So why should a government-funded national broadcaster mired in its own scandals?
The public have every right to assume, and they do, that this well-fed doggie is unlikely to bite the hand that feeds.
What this is all about is controlling the narrative and in recent years this has become almost impossible, necessitating a new era of censorship.
But this will fail as it did in the past as it is not social media but controversial government policies which are causing public disquiet and a loss of social cohesion.
Government is using the cover of the riots for a clampdown