Original Article By Cindy Harper
A push to regulate algorithms and online speech shows Ireland’s growing willingness to trade digital freedom for centralized control of information.
Ireland’s Joint Committee on Artificial Intelligence has issued a report urging new national laws to regulate how AI systems and social media platforms handle online speech and data.
We obtained a copy of the report for you here.
The document, released this week in Dublin, outlines a plan to target “hate” and “misinformation” while pressing the government to go beyond European Union standards and impose tighter domestic controls.
The committee’s First Interim Report calls for strict oversight of AI-driven recommendation engines, the systems that determine what users see online.
It argues that algorithms which amplify “harmful and hateful content” should be directly addressed through legislation, identifying this as a serious gap in current regulation that “must be addressed in any EU and national legislation.”
Two organizations featured prominently in the report’s evidence sessions: the Irish Traveller Movement and BeLonG To. Both receive significant public funding for programs centered on “anti-racism” and “LGBT advocacy.”
The Traveller Movement told lawmakers that children in its community are vulnerable to algorithmic bias, while BeLonG To said “AI perpetuating discriminatory stereotypes” and producing content that targets minority groups are growing problems.
The committee concluded that “strong enforcement of the Digital Services Act and safety by design” is needed to deal with these harms.
Beyond content moderation, the committee recommends that governments compel social media companies to stop AI systems from being used “for misinformation campaigns aimed at destabilising society.”
It warns that Ireland “must not shy away from the EU AI Act or try to dilute it,” describing the Act as “a minimum baseline for national AI regulation.”
One of the most far-reaching recommendations concerns how platforms deliver information.
The committee proposes that “recommender systems should be designed so that recommended material that is put out delivers a balanced point of view, that is evidence-based.”
For ordinary users, recommendation features would be switched off by default. For younger users, the report calls for a complete ban on enabling these systems.
Although the document never uses the term “digital ID age verification,” its logic depends on it.
Identifying which accounts belong to minors would require verifying the age of every user, effectively introducing a nationwide system of identity checks before accessing algorithmic feeds.
The report dismisses concerns that stricter oversight could harm innovation.
Referring to testimony from the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, it argues that “the false dichotomy of innovation vs. regulation serves the vested interests of billionaires,” concluding that “robust, well-implemented regulation of AI is essential.”
It also advises the government to invest in “publicly owned AI resources and technologies” to reduce dependence on private companies, and to tighten copyright protections so that AI developers cannot train their models on creative works “without the consent of their creators.”
The committee wants a new “national AI Office” in place by August 2026 to coordinate these efforts.
Disabling recommendation engines, enforcing “balanced” viewpoints, and tracking user ages would move control of digital information flows toward centralized authorities, raising concerns about privacy, free expression, and the long-term direction of internet governance in Ireland.
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