Media Minister dismisses calls for X to be banned in Ireland

By Bairbre Holmes, Press Association

The Media Minister has dismissed calls from the Labour Party for the social media platform X to be banned in Ireland.

Patrick O’Donovan was asked by reporters if the Government would make such a move in light of recent reports that the website’s AI chatbot, Grok, was creating images of sexual abuse, including of children.

He said it was “important” to point out “that the European Commission is the regulator for X, in conjunction with Coimisiún na Meán.”

Mr O’Donovan was speaking at the start of construction of the National Concert Hall’s Discover Centre, which is described as “a new, state-of-the-art, national centre for music participation, learning and community engagement”.

The €21 million project is due to be completed early next year.

Last week, the minister was criticised after he was reported as emphasising the responsibility of individuals for images they produce using Grok, rather than criticising X.

Mr O’Donovan claimed his comments were “taken out of context”.

He said there are “lot of roles, a lot of moving parts” when it comes to images of sexual abuse created by AI.

He said a number of bodies bear responsibility for control of the images including the Department of Justice, An Garda Síochána, Coimisiún na Meán and the European Commission.

When pushed as to why he had not mentioned the responsibility born by X, he said the platform is regulated by Coimisiún na Meán, and as the minister responsible for the body, it would be “highly inappropriate” for him to tell them what to do.

Asked if an Irish organisation was to publish child sexual abuse images online would he call for it to be shut down he said: “If an Irish business did that, I would be saying exactly the same thing.”

He added: “If I said that Coimisiún na Meán should be doing something you would probably, and rightly so, accuse me of overstepping my role as minister in telling an independent body what to do.”