The hearing was prompted by a series of high‑profile road‑safety incidents, the most tragic of which involved a vehicle travelling the wrong way on the M9, killing five teenagers and injuring a child and three women from the same family.
Representatives from the three platforms were asked to detail how they identify and remove content that promotes criminal or dangerous activity, including car theft, joyriding, speeding and, most prominently, wrong‑way driving.
Google’s government‑affairs manager, Ryan Meade, said the company had removed fewer than ten Irish‑specific dangerous‑driving videos from YouTube and shut down fewer than ten channels between early July and the end of August.
Meta’s head of public policy in Ireland, Dualta Ó Broin, disclosed that two Ireland‑originated wrong‑way‑driving videos were removed between 1 December and 5 September, with eight more age‑gated, and that 127 items of related “viral challenge” content had been taken down, three of which were restricted to users over 18.
TikTok’s global head of policy for trust and safety could not supply a specific figure for the number of Irish dangerous‑driving videos or the total views those videos received, though the company said 42,000 pieces of content featuring dangerous activity or challenges were identified globally in the first half of the year.
Committee chairman Labour TD Alan Kelly described TikTok’s lack of quantitative data as “deeply concerning”, noting that the platform claimed 99.6% of dangerous‑activity videos were removed proactively, with 83.4% taken down before any views and almost 90% within 24 hours, but offered no Irish‑specific viewing statistics.
All three companies pledged to provide the committee with additional figures after the hearing, while Kelly warned that Ireland faced a “watershed moment” and must protect its citizens from harmful online content.
The regulator Coimisiún na Meán (CnaM) was also questioned. Executive chairman Jeremy Godfrey said the body cannot declare full confidence in the platforms’ compliance without legal processes, but noted that CnaM has opened six investigations into potential breaches of online‑safety rules and is collaborating with the European Commission on four more.
Sinn Féin TD Joanna Byrne and Fine Gael senator Evanne Ní Chuillinn criticised the regulator’s perceived hands‑off approach and highlighted the litigious environment that hampers swift action.