socialMediaThey’re talking about social media in Leinster House today.

‘They’ include Facebook and Twitter and whatnot .

The following is part of a submission by Fergal Crehan of Digital Rights Ireland to the joint oireachtas hearing.

We are in the fourth decade of the Internet’s existence. However, in some respects, in Ireland at least, the Internet only broke through to the cultural mainstream since the advent of the smartphone.

What might be termed “the Irish Internet community” is to a large extent made of “digital natives”, people who have learned appropriate online behaviour over many years’ immersion in the norms of the community.

At the same time, the law has kept reasonably abreast. We submit that in the areas of bullying and hate speech, two offences exist which are tailor-made, without any amendment, for use in respect of online communication.

However, many hundreds of thousands of newer users of the Internet, less attuned to these norms, have flooded online in recent years, leading to a wrong belief, that “anything goes” online.

We submit that this perception has twin dangers. It lulls Internet users into behaving in ways they would not dream of behaving in daily life. It also gives legislators and even enforcers the mistaken impression that no laws exist to deal with such behaviour.

And he recommends:

New legislation should be introduced, but clarification should be provided on the following points:

  • That offences under the Non-Fatal Offences Act and the Prevention of Incitement to Hatred Act apply to online communications.
  • That intent to stir up hatred is not an essential ingredient of the offence of “Preparation and possession of material likely to stir up hatred”.
  • That Norwich Pharmacal orders are available as a means of unmasking anonymous parties, but should only be made where a substantial case is disclosed.

 Section 13 of Post Office Amendment Act 1951 should not be further amended.

 The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner should be properly funded, particularly in respect of its enforcement powers.

Prosecutions of the offences of Harassment and Preparation and Possession of Material Likely to Stir Up Hatred should be considered, where appropriate.

 An education programme should be instituted in relation to online behaviour, applying to both adults and to children.

Your thoughts?

Full Submission here

Joint Committee Meeting On Social Media (The Cedar Lounge Revolution)

Screen Shot 2013-03-06 at 10.08.37It’s OK.

It’s a nice letter.

Simone Wesche writes:

I am from Berlin. I lived in Dublin last year and still follow stuff happening on Broadsheet from here. I lived in Stoneybatter which was great and went to amazing gigs at weekends at an art space there called The Joinery [above]. I am on their mailing list and it looks like they may have to close because of lack of money. It was the coolest place, I saw [Kilkenny multi-instrumentalist] RSAG there and it was brilliant. I think you should highlight them because you really need places like that in Dublin. I hope you have a nice summer this year.

 

Damn thoughtful, caring ich bin ein hipstiner.

The Joinery

The Joinery on Fundit

Joinery pic via Yelp

the_revolution_will_not_be_televised_2003-2

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (2003).

Still startling fly-on-the-palace-wall documentary on strange but frightening 2002 coup attempt.

Dismissed by anti-Chavezites. Regularly shown on Venezuelan telly.

By Kim Bartley and Donnacha Ó Briain. Produced by Power Pictures, Galway.

At first, the president’s staff treated the filmmakers with suspicion and made filming difficult. After numerous delays, Bartley and Ó Briain finally got through to Chávez. They calculated that they needed to “press the right buttons” to gain his support, so they presented him with an old edition of the memoirs of [Cork-born] Daniel Florence O’Leary, who had fought alongside Simón Bolívar. Inside, they had written a quote from the Irish socialist playwright Seán O’Casey. Slowly, Bartley and Ó Briain gained their subjects’ trust, “dissolving any self-consciousness as a result of their cameras”.

 

Watch the full documentary here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id–ZFtjR5c

Earlier: Hugo Chavez Has Died

Daniel Florence O’Leary?

Denisnew

In today’s Irish Times, Colm Keena writes about the possible implications of an INM debt writedown, pointing to the company’s largest shareholder Denis O’Brien’s considerable wealth and his tax affairs.

He sez:

“Last year he bought the Irish business support firm, Siteserv, for €45.4 million. As part of the deal the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, which incorporated Anglo Irish Bank, wrote off 70 per cent of a €150 million debt Siteserv had with Anglo. Now INM is reportedly seeking the write-off of up to a quarter of its €400 million bank debt. How much is being asked of the Irish banks is not known.”

 

“No-one is arguing that it is better that companies with unsustainable debts be allowed collapse rather than have their debts reduced to manageable levels. But giving write-downs to companies that are wholly or in part owned by non-resident billionaires who appear to be flush with cash, raises the kind of issues referred to in the OECD report. This is especially so when so many people on moderate incomes are being levied with extra taxes, while also struggling with debts which the banks, and the Government, say should not be written off if the debtor can pay, least it create a moral hazard.”

 

Would An INM Write-Down Involve Moral Hazard? (Colm Keena, Irish Times)

Previously: $5billion, Eh?

Denis, Dividends, Debts and Paying Back Anglo

iron-man-3-international-poster

What you may need to know:

1. Iron Man rocked. Iron Man 2 was rubbish. This one’s directed by Shane Black, who directed Downey in the sublime Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005). We can’t believe he didn’t give Val Kilmer a holler.

2. It’s easy to forget that pre-Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr was a washed-up ex-junkie who’d blown his chances at stardom and was considered an un-insurable liability to put Charlie Sheen to shame.

3. Ben Kingsley plays The Mandarin. In the comics, he’s Asian. Marvel don’t want to piss off the Chinese, so here he’s, well, Ben Kingsley.

4. We do love Guy Pearce. He was the best thing in Lawless (2012). What was he doing in Prometheus (2012)  again?

5. Truth be told, this looks kind of deadly. But we hear Man Of Steel (2013) is the superhero flick to beat this summer.

Release Date: April

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