Online Safety Code (Coimisiún na Meán), Terms and Conditions, Reporting and Flagging, and Complaints (Sections 12, 15, 16 and 17.3)

Section 1.5 of the Code provides that the entirety of the Code is binding for the video-sharing platform services regulated by the Code. Section 2.2 provides that the Code applies to all video-sharing platform services which are under the jurisdiction of the State within the meaning of Section 2B of the Act, being services within the category of relevant online services designated by the Commission.

Section 9.1 provides that, pursuant to Section 139Q of the Act, a failure by a video-sharing platform service to comply with the Code shall be a contravention for the purposes of Part 8B of the Act.

Section 12.1 requires a video-sharing platform service provider to include in the terms and conditions and related obligations of the service restrictions that preclude users from uploading or sharing restricted video content and restricted indissociable user-generated content as the Code defines them.

Restricted video content includes video content by which a person bullies or humiliates another person, promotes or encourages behaviour that characterises a feeding or eating disorder, promotes or encourages self-harm or suicide, or makes available knowledge of methods of self-harm or suicide, where the content meets the risk test.

The risk test is content that gives rise to any risk to a person's life or to a risk of significant harm to a person's physical or mental health, where the harm is reasonably foreseeable. Restricted video content also includes video content containing incitement to violence or hatred directed against a group of persons or a member of a group based on any of the grounds referred to in Article 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

Restricted video content also includes video content the dissemination of which constitutes a public provocation to commit a terrorist offence, an offence concerning child pornography as the Code words it, or an offence concerning racism and xenophobia.

Section 12.6 requires the provider to apply the terms and conditions that give effect to section 12 of the Code and, where appropriate and after having issued a prior warning, to suspend for a reasonable period of time the provision of its services to users that it has determined to have frequently infringed them.

Section 12.9 provides that sections 12.6, 12.7 and 12.8 apply only insofar as the consequences for the user are not covered by measures adopted pursuant to Articles 23 and 35(1)(b) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065. Section 15.1 requires the provider to establish and operate transparent and user-friendly mechanisms for users to report or flag restricted video content and restricted indissociable user-generated content, among other categories.

Section 15.2 requires the provider to establish and operate systems by which it explains to users what effect has been given to the reporting and flagging of content, for example the removal of such content.

Section 15.3 requires the provider, when informing a notifier of its decision about reported or flagged content, to tell the notifier that they can use the provider's complaint handling procedures if they are dissatisfied and to provide clear and transparent information about complaint handling systems to users.

Section 16.1 requires the provider to establish and operate transparent, easy-to-use and effective procedures for the handling and resolution of complaints made by users in relation to the implementation of measures relating to age assurance, content rating, parental controls and reporting and flagging. Section 16.4 requires the provider to handle complaints in a diligent, timely, non-discriminatory and effective manner.

Section 17.3 requires the provider, pursuant to Section 139K(6) of the Act, to provide a report to the Commission, every 3 months or at such other intervals as the Commission specifies, on its handling of communications from users raising complaints or other matters.

Sections 11 to 17 of Part B of the Code apply from the date the Commission determined for the application of Part B. Section 139ZG(1) of the Broadcasting Act 2009 includes in the definition of contravention a failure to comply with an online safety code.

Section 139ZW(1) of that Act provides that, where the inquiry subject is not an individual, an administrative financial sanction for such a contravention shall not exceed €20,000,000 or, if greater, 10 per cent of the relevant turnover of the inquiry subject in the financial year preceding the date of the decision to impose it.