Gardaí have arrested a man in connection with online threats made against Taoiseach Simon Harris and his family last weekend.
The threatening post appeared on Instagram and was visible for at least two days before it was deleted.
In a short statement on Sunday, gardaí said detectives investigating “online threats against an elected representative” had arrested a man in his forties on Sunday morning.
The man is currently detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984, at a Garda station in the north west.
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The arrest was made as Mr Harris said social media platforms must comply with the same legal rules as traditional media. It cannot be an area that operates outside normal legal parameters, he told reporters at the Tullamore Show.
He added that laws should apply the same to users of social media as they would offline, including laws surrounding incitement to hatred.
His comments came after several weeks in which misinformation and threats made via social media platforms have been prominent in the news.
Mr Harris and other politicians including Mary Lou McDonald have been subject to online threats, while misinformation and incitement on social media has been blamed for disorder in the UK and Northern Ireland.
An Garda Síochána meanwhile criticised online misinformation linking the sudden death of a man in Dublin to immigration and international protection.
“We live in a great country, and we live in a country where people are extremely kind and decent. And what angers me, actually, is that a few small people, small in number and small in mindset, seek to misrepresent the views of our people and people with no democratic mandate, with no democratic legitimacy,” Mr Harris said.
“Who hide behind computers and keyboard screens and anonymous accounts seeking to intimidate elected representatives.”
None of the “faceless keyboard warriors” had stood in the recent local and European elections, and he does not anticipate that they would stand in the next general election. “This is a great country. And what I love about being the Taoiseach of this country is the ability to be accessible,” he said.
Mr Harris said he believed social media could be a force for good. It enabled greater connectivity, to bring people together, to have greater access to information.
“There’s a lot of good things that can happen with social media, but it can’t be the wild west,” he said. “It can’t be an area that operates outside of normal legal parameters. And the word media is a giveaway here. It has to conform to rules in the same way as newspapers and broadcasters do as well.
“So thanks to the European Union and the work that Ireland and many member states have done at an EU level, we now have the EU Digital Services Act. And this does enable member states to take real steps, in terms of regulation, and in terms of putting in place binding codes that if those codes are not adhered to, there can be sanctions, including significant financial sanctions.
“This has absolutely nothing to do with freedom of thought, freedom of speech, nothing to do with that at all. But if you use any form of platform to incite hatred, you can’t just think, ‘cos I did it on the internet, I’m not subjected to the laws of this Republic and that’s what it’s about.
“It’s about making sure that the laws of the land apply online as well as offline, and to any so-called keyboard warrior, let me assure them today, that the online world is not some other little world over there where you can behave differently in that space than you would when you’re talking to your neighbour.”
Mr Harris said he was very satisfied with the work being done by the Gardaí and by Minister for Media Catherine Martin in terms of an online safety code that will be in place and binding by the end of the year. “This will be a significant step forward.”
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