Govt won't oppose Labour bill to tackle AI abuse imagery

The Government is not opposing a proposal from the Labour Party to strengthen the law around tackling AI-generated sexual abuse imagery.

Labour's Alan Kelly introduced the legislation which would amend The Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act.

He said it would close gaps in Irish law and strengthen legal accountability for online platforms.

Earlier this year, the European Commission launched an investigation into Grok, the AI tool which is part of the social media platform X, over its use of sexually explicit images, including potential child sexual abuse material.

It followed outcry over the spread of sexually manipulated images, including those of children.

"More than nine months after the Grok/X scandal, Government has still failed to deliver the changes needed to protect people from AI-generated sexual abuse," Mr Kelly said.

"People who have experienced this abuse deserve more than expressions of concern. They need a law that addresses what perpetrators and platforms can now do.

The Labour TD said that the Bill would "explicitly cover sexual abuse images that someone generates or alters using AI.

"It would criminalise generating those images without consent for publication or distribution and make it an offence to encourage or knowingly facilitate their generation for that purpose.

"That responsibility must extend to the companies that provide these tools.

"Major publishers, including X, Meta, TikTok and Google, must answer for their conduct under the law. Platforms cannot claim to take safety seriously while escaping responsibility for facilitating abuse."

Minister of State at the Department of Justice Colm Brophy told the Dáil that the Government would not oppose the Bill as its aims align with the Government's commitment to a zero-tolerance approach to domestic sexual and gender-based violence.

He said the coalition shared the "widespread revulsion expressed in this House at the non-consensual nidification of images, primarily of women and children".

Mr Brophy confirmed that Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan had this week got Cabinet approval to not oppose the bill.

If the Bill is enacted, it would hold social media executives "criminally liable" for harmful content, Mr Kelly said.

He said that fines have no impact on social media companies as they build fines "into their baseline".

For those companies that habitually allow harmful material onto their platforms, he said, this Bill would hold "the executives of those companies can be held criminally liable".

The Bill was updated to take into account the nudification of images which the AI tool Grok allowed nine months ago, the Deputy said.

Labour TD Ciarán Ahern said that online material is encouraging young people to engage in harmful behaviour.

Online culture "has been allowed to fester", he said, urging that this be addressed by the adoption of the Bill.

Minister Brophy noted that there are several Bills before the House that aim to tackle this problem.

Mr Kelly said any of them, or any combination, could be used as long as something is enacted quickly.

Mr Brophy outlined existing statutory measures which govern this area, and commended Mr Kelly for his work on the Bill.