Tiktok talk to politicians following m9 crash
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Why did TikTok decide to appear before the Oireachtas Media Committee after initially declining?
First, though, TikTok officials are to appear before the Oireachtas Media Committee this morning, a month after declining an invitation because of an ongoing Garda investigation into the fatal crash on the M9 in August. The company is expected to launch a strong defence of its policies on the posting of illegal criminal activities when they appear before the committee. Google and Commission Na Man... will also appear today. I'm joined now by Alan Kelly, TD, Chair of the Oireachtas Media Committee. Good morning, Deputy. Good morning. TikTok initially declined to appear before your committee last month. What changed?
I was speaking at the European Presidency Summit which Minister Patrick O'Donoghue organised on the 10th of September out in Dublin Castle. It was on online safety for young people in particular and their head of global partnerships, elections and market integrity was actually on the panel and whether it was Machiavellian by Minister O'Donoghue and his officials or accidental, I was on the same panel with their representative. And essentially, I challenged him and his organisation. They spoke so much about safety, about the billions that they were spending each year. I said how he was given so much information. Would it not be good and appropriate, seeing as they had turned us down to come in front of our committee?
And in fairness, to acknowledge, amazingly enough, after that hour-long meeting, panel discussion the following morning, very early the following morning, we got a notification from TikTok that they actually had changed their mind and were turning up. So I'm glad they're coming and glad Google and Meta are coming along as well.
OK, and what do you expect to hear from them?
Well, look, what I expect to hear and what is reality are probably going to be two totally different things. We have their opening statements. We know what they're going to say in their opening statements. I think it's about the questioning by the members robustly today is the most important component.
What did Alan Kelly expect TikTok’s opening statement to reveal about platform responsibility?
Right. And what they say in their opening statement is they say they can address what appears on the platform, but they can't address the underlying causes of criminal or dangerous behaviour, which requires a broader societal response. I suppose that point is reasonably fair, is it?
That's common sense. I mean, that applies to every walk of life. I mean, you wouldn't expect anyone working in any other domain to be responsible for criminal behavior that's outside of anything to do with them. However, these companies make zillions. Absolute zillions. And I'm glad TikTok are coming because they are the platform of choice for most young people, but also the other e-commerce companies. They're massive e-commerce companies. Their capacity to influence people, their capacity to change people's views is huge. Their capacity to ensure that content that is put up by young people or put up by anyone is distributed and seen multi-millions of times.
They
make serious money out of this. So this content is free in the main and they make so much money out
of
this. They have a responsibility to ensure that no illegal and dangerous bullying, that type of content that goes up. And let me just say this. We speak an awful lot about AI in our committee. There is another AI committee inside here in the Oireachtas. The capacity of AI now to deal with much of this is phenomenal. And I'll be questioning as to why they're not doing that more.
OK, well, they will argue, because we know from the opening statement, they will argue in particular videos that could cause significant physical harm, including promoting risky driving, which is obviously what's prompted this particular discussion. 99.6% of those videos that TikTok will say were removed before any user reported them. 89.9% of those within 24 hours of publication.
How does the committee view TikTok’s role in removing dangerous driving videos?
So I presume they're going to say that they're doing a bang off job.
What they're not telling you, though, is the volume, the quantity. I read the statement. They said we've removed thousands of videos.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why did TikTok decide to appear before the Oireachtas Media Committee after initially declining?
0:00–2:01
2
What did Alan Kelly expect TikTok’s opening statement to reveal about platform responsibility?
2:01–3:49
3
How does the committee view TikTok’s role in removing dangerous driving videos?
3:49–5:26
4
What concerns are raised about the volume of illegal content that slips through TikTok’s filters?
5:26–6:36
5
Why might existing EU and national legislation be insufficient for regulating TikTok?
6:36–8:18
6
How could treating platforms as publishers change legal accountability?
8:18–10:14
7
What role does AI play in moderating TikTok content and its limitations?
10:14–13:23
8
Should TikTok be banned in Ireland if it repeatedly fails to meet safety standards?
13:23–15:27