Majority of Irish citizens want stronger online data regulations

74 per cent of Irish people want content based on their browsing history to be turned off by default and stronger regulations for social media algorithms, according to a poll by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) and Uplift earlier this week.

The findings suggest more than 80 per cent of people in the country are “in favour of social media companies being forced to stop building up specific data” regarding users’ characteristics such as sexual desires or political and religious views.

It also highlighted the role of agorithms, or recommender system, in promoting hate and extreme.

Dr Rónán Kennedy, teaching professor of information technology law at the University of Galway, said: “Closer regulation of these algorithms would be welcome.”

“Recommender systems try to predict what people will be interested in based on what they have looked at before. They are often incorrect and tend to prioritise content that is inflammatory as humans are quicker to return to issues with emotional impact,” he said.

“I think [turning off the recomender system] is a good idea. The default should be off and you can choose to turn it on if you want to,” said Katelyn Rafter, a Galway resident.

However, she said the social media platforms usually still promote information based on her online profiles to her after turning off the recommender system.

“I feel it does happen anyway even when you do turn it (the algorithms) off,” she said.

Izzy Butler, a student from Galway Community College, however, said content suggested to her online did not match what she wanted to search in the first place.

“Users – not Big Tech’s algorithms – should have the freedom to decide what they see and share online,” said Dr Johnny Ryan, senior fellow from ICCL.

Professor Kennedy said this kind of recommender system should be turned off and “only enabled when they have been subject to an external independent audit to ensure that they do not spread harmful content”.

The poll came after the introduction of the draft Online Safety Code by Coimisiún na Meán on December last year, which states that recommender algorithms based on profiling should be turned off by default.