Social Media

First shared: 21st March 2021

The need for social media change is ever increasing with every day that passes. The rights surrounding people's personal information are being lost on a deliberate made fog of activity by those exploiting current regulation weaknesses in some cases, and in others, totally ignoring Irish and European data protection laws and ECJ court rulings.
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Fine Gael previously, for example, has been using the national roll-out of broadband across the state as an opportunity to harvest people's information - by asking them to pass on further personal details (not actually direct connected to the matter of broadband) about themselves, to a Fine Gael database that was connected to their own party website. They were quickly exposed in their attempt to data harvest off the back of the broadband excuse. Their attempt through their political party website, then vanished over night!
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They could of course, invented a legit sounding reason for a database harvesting exercise connected to their own website rather than a business one but why they need a further database existing in the grips and view of their own hands, we can only estimate that it is for self-political purposes too. No doubt they will deny it, but the facts are what they are. Anyone with even half a brain would come to the same conclusion.
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Here, as in other matters, consecutive Irish governments consisting of the usual culprits, are breaking data laws including the European Court of Justice Bara case ruling that RTE and other biased media repeatedly fail to report and expose they continue to do.
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We therefore must go to the heart of such matters and address them by new regulation and legislation, better enacted by people with greater enforcement powers, more unrestricted and unhindered by political, business or individuals who continue their selfish, sleight of hand profit seeking ways as a quiet primary objective.
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We need a greater legal framework for the collecting, storing, and disseminating of electronic information but that is not enough. Clearly there must be greater legislative protocols introduced with greater power to independent assessors to oversee those doing the gathering, how it is done, the limits of when and if it can even be justified done along with the destruction of same gathered data when a task or project is completed.
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Current regulatory compliance needs to be reinforced in both proposed instigative measures that is future desired by independent assessors and by their need and wants to be able move forward in investigative nature and subsequent upholding of new and already established necessary protocols.

Help! Is There Anyone There? Hello?
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Social media outlets such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and more, often taking upon themselves to make it as hard as possible for a member of the public, to actually speak to one of their staff.

Stuck with an issue that needs to be addressed in minutes not days, weeks or even months? Try looking for a phone number, email or other forms of direct contact abilities with many of these services. Don’t hold your breath while looking. You will find buried somewhere on some of them if you are lucky, an address - usually foreign - so that means even further delay in getting any response if you are still blessed to get one!

• Someone threatening you?

• Someone online stalking you?

• Someone attacking you viciously online?

• Someone hacked your social media page and start posting under your name?

• Someone (an ex?) put up pictures somewhere that were once private but now posted public by them in order to further embarrass you?

These and more, are the type of situations that you might need immediate assistance with. With services like social media but not just limited to them, the lack of direct human help is not just bad form! Lack of immediate help is potentially very damaging in immediate name and even possible financial loss (as later it might also cost you further expense to help rectify any damage done) that might have been made lesser given even a minor opportunity!

Such lack of care – lack of duty to clients, is irreprehensible in this day and age – especially with the ability to make help happen faster with technology at the fingertips of social media company staff.

Attack, Attack, Attack…

There are several online Irish forums that without question, are dens of iniquity. Boards.ie has become an infamous one. Its political sections have within them like other sections, good people. Sadly however, they are also infested with other humans posting far lower quality content that absolutely is defamation to say the least.

It would be too easy to say that such content has just been posted by those (a) easy led by others or (b) somewhat dim-witted. It would be easy to say it indeed – but it would not be the full truth. Many posters at these site locations post their completely false inventions and name callings due to biased political reasons, beyond also having low brains of a “troll”.

They have a clear-cut agenda to undermine and with enough muck invention, then throwing, hope to effect people’s chances of even running for local or national election.

Sometimes they operate on their own, sometimes they operate by organised setup.

Sometimes when one begins their attempt to attack, others of like-mind, seeing an opportunity to own advantage, join in and between the lot of them as attacking numbers increase, bite away at a person viciously like wild dogs. Often appealing to a form section moderator is useless. They are sometimes found to be just as biased against the victim for their own reasons, so they do nothing - or whatever little they are willing to do eventually, is hours or days too late on purpose.

The ability of the average citizens to hold these bad or non-acting services to account, is extremely limited. You must be of potential serious wealth just to even think on starting a highcourt case, just to even try start the process of justice, never mind then applying its further legal processes. Here, as in many things in Irish society, there exists a great device between the elite that can avail of better thing – in this case justice – and those that cannot. “Those” being the vast majority of the public. It is not good enough!

Social media setups once they go over a certain size, we suggest, be asked or levied to help pay for such a public service. If they are going to provide a service that facilitates many issues, they should be at least further help to contribute financially to the addressing of such issues too? Not just help create or unnecessarily exacerbate problems and then be allowed get away with doing it! Greater accountability is more needed.

—Pngtree—team metaphor people connecting puzzle_5268221

In Conclusion:

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• The number of staff currently employed in the Office of Data Protection needs to be dramatically increased. This is especially important as the number of data centers continue to increase in construction and wide locations on Ireland soil.
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• The ability to initiate investigations based on gained information on record and of that provided by confidential sources needs to be increased – not just permitted to happen upon an official report being made but there is such enough circumstantial suspicion of wrongdoing that upon signing off by a secondary agreed assessment of any one situation, a further inspection of matters can start.
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• Greater technology must be sourced and more provided to the officers of The Office of Data Protection. Much of those that they are tasked to oversee and regular spot-check, often have greater technology and more dedicated skilled to aid possible suspected deception or misappropriate operations involving many. Greater tools, more to date, made available would be of increased service to the department and to the state.
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• When a business, enterprise, company, public provided service, etc, extends in range (number to be defined) to the general public, it must provide a direct human contact facility in order to far quicker resolve matter that have arisen through the existence and use of its abilities provided! This should be legislated.
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Not to do so, should see it heavily fined or indeed, if necessary, closed down or not allowed to operate within Irish borders or though Ireland online services.
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• Greater legislation is required to help the average citizen, though an additional new fast-track justice department system, to seek justice where they have been wronged in the eyes of the pubic and through the reading of better legal defamation laws that needs to be also updated to include online activities.
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• Every minute, every hour, every day that social media companies fail to act, they should be far more held accountable for! Greater, clearer legislation addressing a clear lack of accountability of poor operating setups must be addressed ASAP.
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• An independent state body, a National Social Media Ombudsman must be established though legislation and funded alongside that of the Office of Data Protection. They can work separately and at times where and when need be, in conjunction with each other.
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Such a public service should be able to provide far more immediate legal advice and courtroom assistance to the average citizen. Be that service fee or financially assessed, the instigation of the service should be primarily to firstly, quickly act and help protect the average Ireland citizen first – and financial cost of doing so only as a secondary matter to be later addressed when possible!
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• The imposition of a financial levy on large (number and ratio to be defined) membership forums that can contribute to the running costs of a National Social Media Ombudsman office.
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• Legislation, protocols and tort law must be far better created and improved to facilitate a far easier path for the average citizen to seek courtroom net justice.
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• Online bullying needs to be further defined and cemented into state legislation as a punishable offense.
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• Coco's Law (or something connected created) should be legislative updated in respect of bullying and harassment online with respect to minors and adults. To quote on Ireland citizen, Leah Catherine Daly “Snapchat and Instagram in particular amongst teens (affect them in such a way) to bring (them or) others to the edge of taking their life”.
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While the likes of Snapchat give users an ability to post something to someone then it deletes itself, if this was online bullying or a threat, there must be in place a better way, easier accessible for proper authorities, to retrieve these posts for later court evidential purposes. Companies that do not allow for this to happen should have their license to operate with in the state suspended or not issued in the first place. They cannot continue to allow their users to do what they like, threaten and intimidate others – sometimes to the point of suicide or other fear of loss and humiliation – and get away with it by destruction of evidence.
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• Multiple abusers initially starting off on their own or acting as an attack pack, hiding behind fake names and pages, needs to be far better addressed in law.
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• It’s still continuing to this day. You can flood people’s inboxes with literal abuse, threats more - and get away with it a lot of the time because there is this still existing view that “Well, it’s online. It’s not as if they are at your door abusing or threatening you?”
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However, such online threats, etc can just be as harmful in mental effect, push a person to a point of mental desperation – and it’s sometimes even worse because the victim is not even allowed know who their abuser is as they hide behind fake names and even locations. They don’t know who it is – so they don’t know how to better gauge a threat and who it might come from, if only to try better protecting themselves. Another mental stress imposed as they fear anonymous attacks, at any time, day or night, at any further location they are at.
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Legislative changes are needed to impose that such abuses are in law taken to be more serious and Garda should be also taking them more serious rather than easier at times, passing them off and doing far less about it all.