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A series of meetings involving governmentpolice and regulators will determine in the coming days what legal action can be taken against the pornographic images allegedly produced on X.
Speaking to David McCullagh on RTE’s Today programme, Communications Minister Patrick O’Donovan said: “Existing laws allow the Garda Siochana and Coimisiun na Mean to take action against social media platforms”.
The two agencies are scheduled to meet on Friday or Monday to discuss the issue, he said.
he said European Commission and Coimisiun na Mean will meet on Friday and irish European regulators need to work together because of the “size and scale of X”.
Mr O’Donovan was asked whether he would take action against a company that facilitated the production of sexual abuse images.
He responded: “It would not be appropriate for the minister responsible for the regulator to tell the regulator what to do.”
Mr O’Donovan said there were “strict” laws against producing images of child pornography and sending or threatening to send images of non-consenting adults.
However, he said ministers would “discuss” the law on the creation of images of adults without consent if the law was not shared, saying: “This needs further clarification.”
He also said: “For example, if an adult cannot be recognized by a real person, if it is a completely artificially generated person, then there may be a problem there.
“If anything, this loophole will be closed.”
He said that a meeting convened by the committee Prime Minister Early next week, “relevant” ministers will attend a Tánaiste meeting to discuss whether the production of the images was illegal.
He said the issue was “being expedited by the Prime Minister and the Tánaiste”.
Asked whether he would have done the same thing if an Irish company had been responsible for producing the images, he said “absolutely, the government would have done the same thing”.
He said police currently have 200 cases under investigation related to the issue, “some of which may come before the courts and I don’t think I want to say anything, or you should say anything, or anyone should say anything that would jeopardize a conviction”.
Asked “Did X do anything unlawful by facilitating the production and sharing of the images?” Mr O’Donovan responded: “That is a matter for An Garda Síochána to investigate in accordance with current legislation.”
He said if they or other public bodies investigating the matter made any further recommendations, “the government has been very clear that action will be taken”.