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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
TechTalk at Newstalk.com is the email address if you want to get in touch. Before the break, we were chatting to our friend John Reilly of TheEffect.net and we were kind of contemplating and pondering the top devices of the year so far. I would love to hear your thoughts. Maybe it's not a new device that just came out in 2026, but it's new to your life.
Let me know what is your favorite tech product of the year so far. TechTalk at Newstalk.com, as I say, is the email address. Now, this week it was announced that the Irish Internet Hotline has been designated as a trusted flagger under the European Union's Digital Services Act by Commissioner Mann. This is significant.
And joining me now to explain exactly why that is, is the CEO of Irish Internet Hotline, Mick Moran. Mick, it's great to have you on the programme. Thanks so much for your time. Before we talk through this announcement, can you just start by reminding us about the work that ye do at Hotline.ie?
So the Irish Internet Hotline was actually founded as Hotline.ie back in 1999. We changed our name last year. And so we are essentially we had been set up back in the day as as as an Internet service provider and platform where people could report stuff that they were seeing online. But of course, the world has changed hugely since then. And We are a member of the In Hope organization.
So we're a hotline, you know, similar to other hotlines. People will have heard of the Internet Watch Foundation, the UK, the National Center for Missing Spoiled Children in the USA. So we're part of that international network. And we basically provide a public-facing platform where people can report illegal or harmful content.
And then we'll move through our channels to get it removed and get it taken down and to stop it circulating again in the future.
This is something that we've spoken about on the programme a lot over the years, particularly around intimate image abuse and how harmful that can be. And the point that I always make is that, you know, if something is only up for three minutes, that's three minutes too long if you're the person at the heart of that. Can you just explain why? Like once you receive a report, what is that process?
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Chapter 2: What is the role of the Irish Internet Hotline in tackling intimate image abuse?
And roughly, is there an average time in terms of how long it takes for something to not only come down, but as you said, prevent it from being re-uploaded or re-shared?
Yeah, like we, you know, to be fair to most companies, most platforms will remove content that's illegal very quickly. We're very proud of the fact that we can sometimes have stuff removed in as short a time as three minutes and up to 24 hours or a couple of days. But, you know, we keep chasing it like we have a system in place where we would be where we would be kind of trusted.
We're part, as I said, of this kind of international network. So companies are well aware of who we are. They're well aware of the expertise we have. Our analysts are very highly trained in relation to the law and in relation to dealing with harmful content that may not necessarily be illegal in certain jurisdictions.
But maybe illegal here in Ireland and intimate image abuse or, you know, that type of material is absolutely right up that alley, you know. And to be fair to companies, they're very quick at taking it down once you make sure that they're aware that there is harm involved.
And I feel, you know, I have sympathy for companies in a certain respect because the scale and the amount of material that they're dealing with every minute, every hour is humongous. And so having trusted lines like us, trusted organizations like us, makes their job that little bit easier. And so we're quite proud of the fact that we can get stuff down a lot quicker than people think we can.
And I suppose people's understanding of how long it takes to get stuff down probably comes from the fact that they're engaging with the platform themselves and they're not seeing it being reacted to in the way that they feel it should be.
Yeah, this is something that, again, you know, I have experience of it at a much lower scale in terms of reporting content that I, as a human, think should be taken down. You get the automated reply and nothing happens. But there are organisations such as yourselves, such as CyberSafe Kids, who we deal with frequently, such as schools as well, that do have sort of shortcuts into these companies.
One thing that comes up sometimes, though, Mick, is people say, But I don't know if this is just me being oversensitive. Would you welcome and should it be the case that people reach out to organisations like yours, even to sense check if something is at the point where it should not be on a platform and potentially could cause harm to somebody?
Well, that's it. I mean, harm is very much in the eyes of the beholder, you know. So if you feel you're being harmed, well, then you let us know and take the advice of our analysts who are dealing with this stuff every day. So for them, you know, one of the first things we'll do is we will reassure, you know. And in a lot of cases, you may not even think that it is...
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