I wish to address the issue of social media. No one can dispute the fact that social media has changed our lives beyond recognition. It has now become the centre of many people's lives, so much so that it is now a medically recognised addiction. In fewer than 14 years it has morphed from being a way of expanding our social network to being a means to destroy people's credibility, reputations and lives at the simple touch of a button. Social media has changed life as we knew it. It has impacted on politics across the world. Some of this change has been positive, but for the most part turning the political system into a free-for-all has proved to be damaging and unsettling.

For the vast majority of politicians, having a presence on social media is almost as vital as having their names on the ballot paper. It is crucial for public representatives to be in touch with people and communities. However, no person, whether in public life or otherwise, should be the target of lies and abuse. This is happening more and more across the world and, sadly, it is also happening here in Ireland.

A clear example of this was the most recent general election. It is widely known that social media platforms were used to target and undermine parties and candidates. Fake profiles were created on social media with the sole purpose of spinning lies and false information intended to cause maximum damage. Reports of certain political groupings encouraging their supporters to target other candidates by posting negative and false comments were rampant. This did not simply happen on the usual platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter. There were chatrooms on a number of sites where keyboard warriors, using monikers to disguise their identities, tore apart the political and personal lives of candidates. For the most part, the comments held as much water as a sieve, but how many voters would have taken the time to check the veracity of the information?

Social media, if left unmonitored, can whip up support for almost anything. Lies and truth compete for the attention of the public. It has happened time and time again throughout this pandemic. Cleverly worded false information has put innumerable lives at risk. Governments across the globe have been accused of using the pandemic to gain control over peoples' lives. Supposedly scientific articles have falsely informed people that mask-wearing is unnecessary. Protests and riots have been organised at the drop of a hat in major cities with crowds screaming demands for freedom from restrictions.

Social media is now the most powerful weapon of our age. It encourages the right to freedom of expression. When will it protect the rights of people who are victimised or misled by lies? This Government has taken commendable action in bringing forward legislation to make the sharing of inappropriate images of women on the Internet punishable by a prison sentence. We must not stop there. We must not forget other victims. Cyber-abuse in all its forms must be legislated for and stamped out.

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. This is something that has been on the minds of many people in our country in recent weeks and months, including parents who are worried about their children and individuals who are worried about their reputations.

It is true that social media has been a great innovation. Like all technologies, it comes with positives and negatives. I believe that in many ways social media has changed our lives for the better but it has also changed our lives for the worse. It allows us to connect on a daily basis with people who perhaps in the past we only saw once a week or once a month. It has been helpful in the pandemic, when it is difficult to meet up with people. It allows us to stay connected with people overseas, relatives and friends with whom we would otherwise have lost contact. We are now able to see what they are doing in their daily lives in a way that we could not in the past. It also allows people to organise as residents' associations, political campaigns, groups of workers and groups of businesspeople. That is not a bad thing in itself. It is probably a good thing but it does come with new dangers. Those new dangers include dis-information, misinformation, downright fake news, conspiracy theories and things that would never be published in a normal newspaper or on a television news bulletin. Yet, these things can be distributed online and seen by tens of thousands of people as though they were true with no consequences.

In many ways social media is the public square and should be treated as the public square. The things that people are not allowed to do in a public square should not be allowed on social media either. We know what these are. We are all in favour of free speech. We allow people to speak freely, but there is a limit to that. There are things that people cannot say in the public square, because if they did they could be sued for libel or defamation. The same things apply to a disguise. We allow people to disguise themselves, to dress up, as it were, in the public square, but not if they do it with a view to causing harm to others. That is fundamentally the principle we should apply to social media. If a person is allowed to do something in the public square, then it is okay. If a person is not allowed to do it in the public square, then it is something we need to take action against.

How are we taking action? As Deputy Lowry mentioned, the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, is bringing forward legislation to make imaged-based sexual abuse a criminal offence. This will build on some work done by Deputy Brendan Howlin. The idea is to turn this into a legal protection against people using intimate images to harm or threaten others.

We are also going to bring in legislation to establish an electoral commission. It is long overdue but very much needed. This will allow us to regulate online political content. The third aspect is the legislation being brought forward by the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Martin. It relates to an online safety commissioner and giving a new office and role to the media commission. The plan is to give the online safety commissioner the power to order platforms to take down content that they have not taken down where it is harmful.

When the term cyberbullying is used, most people think it refers solely to children and teenagers. This is a misconception. The harassment and abuse of adults, particularly public figures, can be equally cruel and damaging. Those involved in high profile roles in media, entertainment, sports, medicine, teaching, politics and even the church are considered to be immune to the vitriol thrown at them on a regular basis. There is an illusion among some people that well-known individuals are unaffected by name-calling and hateful comments and should somehow be able to handle it.

I believe our House has a role to play. Political leaders must act to curb the crude, vicious and scurrilous attacks on political opponents. Many of these social media warriors are out of control and need to be reined in. A pattern develops where the same cowards repeatedly pop up to peddle hateful, offensive and malicious commentary. This brand of political support should be banished. Any party or organisation with a morsel of self-respect would not tolerate or condone this shameful activity. Our country requires further legislation and regulation to deal effectively with these messengers of disruption.

The Deputy is spot on. Public figures, whether in media, sport, politics or business, have to have a thick skin. Public figures put themselves out there and have to accept that they are going to be criticised in a way that average or everyday people would not be, but there is a limit to that. Cyberbullying, whether of children, adults or public figures, is wrong. The best thing we can do to counteract it is to apply a basic principle. Is what is said something that would be tolerated if it happened in the public square?

Could somebody say what is being said in the street and do so without consequences? The other issue is how we can legislate in this context. We plan to legislate for an online safety commissioner as part of the media commission. That online safety commissioner will have the power to order platforms to take content down where it is harmful. We will have a job to do in this House to define what harmful means, because one person's harmful is another person's opinion. We must bear that in mind. We must also bear in mind that this is the World Wide Web and that Ireland is only one country out of 200. There are limitations to our extraterritorial remit, but many of these companies are based in Ireland and that gives us more influence than most countries.