Ireland faces action on terrorist-content rule
The European Commission has referred Ireland to the EU’s highest court for not complying with rules aimed at combatting terrorist content online.
Bulgaria and Portugal have also been referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union over the same issue.
The commission believes that the three countries have failed to comply with one or more obligations under the Terrorist Content Online Regulation (TCOR).
The regulation, which came into effect in June 2022, requires that terrorist content in the EU is taken down by online platforms within one hour upon receipt of a removal order issued by member states' authorities.
Concerns
The commission says that the three countries have not yet addressed concerns it raised with them in reasoned opinions sent last year.
The concerns include requirements to:
- Designate the authority or authorities responsible for enforcing the regulation and ensuring compliance, and to notify the commission of those authorities,
- Establish a public contact point to handle requests for clarification and feedback in relation to removal orders, and
- Lay down the rules and measures on penalties in case of non-compliance of hosting service providers with their legal obligations.
The Government has approved An Garda Síochána as the Irish competent authority to issue removal orders, while Coimisiún na Meán (CnaM) is responsible for overseeing tech companies’ compliance with the regulation.
Legislation to allow CnaM to impose penalties for infringement of the TCOR, however, has not yet been passed. The Criminal Justice (Protection, Preservation of and Access to Data on Information Systems) Bill 2024 was listed for priority drafting in the summer legislative programme.