Twitter disputes McEntee’s claims over lack of co-operation

Twitter has refuted Minister for Justice Helen McEntee’s claims that they did not co-operate with Gardaí in the aftermath of the Dublin riots.

In a statement published on Monday evening, referring to McEntee’s speech in the Dáil where she said that the social media platform did not co-operate with Gardaí, the Global Government Affairs team stated “this is inaccurate.”

“We have proactively taken action on more than 1,230 pieces of content under our rules relating to the riots.  We met with the Coimisiún na Meán on November 24 to discuss our response. The Gardai did not make any formal requests to us until late Monday 27th November. We responded promptly.  The only appeal we have received from the Gardai relating to the enforcement of our rules is for a single post.  We hope the Minister will clarify her remarks.”

On Wednesday, McEntee told the Dáil that while some social media companies were responsible during the unrest on November 23rd, others were not.

McEntee said she “spoke to a detective in Pearse Street on Saturday (25th) who was actively engaged with the social media companies throughout Thursday, who was actively engaged with TikTok, Meta or Instagram and Facebook and Twitter.”

“She said very clearly that social media companies, in particular TikTok and Meta, they were responding, engaging with gardaí and taking down these vile posts as they came up. X were not. They didn’t engage. They did not fulfil their own community standards,” she said in the Dáil.

She said that Twitter did not take down content surrounding the riots, and she stated that “it added to and I think fuelled some of what happened.”

“I would like to engage with them on what they plan to do moving forward,” she added.

Ireland’s media regulator, Coimisiún na Meán said they, along with the European Commission, have continued to engage with social media platforms about their response to the unrest in Dublin.

“The platforms indicated that they responded quickly to the spread of illegal content on their services,” Coimisiún na Meán told RTÉ.

“However we remain concerned about the spread of misinformation and disinformation online, and its real-world impacts.”