Ireland to Push to End Social Media Anonymity During its EU Presidency

Well this could get very interesting. It is unclear if they have a way to make this happen, but they might try. Here is the plan.

Ireland is getting the reins of the EU presidency in 2026. Once that happens they can push for changes but unlike the US president who just signs a piece of paper to make (some) changes, in the EU they can’t do that.

Tanaiste Simon Harris says the initiative will be a priority during Ireland’s six-month EU Council presidency, which begins this month. They say that the measure is essential to “defending democracy” against anonymous abuse and digital manipulation.

If this were to happen, how would it work?

The Irish government would push for changes to the EU’s Digital Services Act. The proposed changes would require social media users to confirm users’ identities before engaging with social media platforms. Likely, that would entail linking each and every account to your government issued ID.

This would require cooperation and compliance from the social media platforms.

This sort of aligns with what Australia has already done with mandatory age verification, identify users and prosecute speech crimes.

The US is not in favor of this since most of the tech companies are US based. It is likely that implementing this would cut down on social media interactions, which means reduction in revenue. Potentially significant revenue losses.

The US has already implemented visa bans on EU officials connected to content moderation laws, saying the regulations affect US companies.

Ireland has a lot to lose as many US tech companies have their European headquarters in Ireland due to its very favorable tax laws.

On the other hand, tech companies have a lot to lose also, so they might negotiate a compromise.

Will this happen?

Would tech companies leave the EU?

Would users stop participating in social media or would they spend a lot less time on social media (which equates to lost revenue)?

How would this work for content posted outside the EU? Would companies have to identify users worldwide or block unverified content from showing up in the EU?

Not to mention, how would this be enforced.

When the UK’s Online Safety Act when into effect last July, which requires age verification only, downloads of VPN software went through the roof, indicating that users were not keen on this version of big brother. Companies like Xbox, Discord, Reddit and Spotify have implemented age verification, but at least some companies are only doing that where required by law.

Of course, these folks having huge repositories of government IDs makes them a target, like Discords breach of over 2 million government IDs last October.

Stay tuned on this one; it is unclear how it will play out.

Credit: MyPrivacy.Blog

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