Electoral Reform Act 2022

• Permanent Page URL

PART 5

Regulation of electoral process information, online electoral information and manipulative or inauthentic behaviour

Chapter 1

Preliminary

Definitions (Part 5)

144. In this Part—

“authorised officer” shall be construed in accordance with section 128 ;

“bot” means an automated online account, software programme or process where all or substantially all of the actions or posts of the account, programme or process are not the result of a person;

“disinformation”, for the purposes of this Act, means any false or misleading online electoral information that—

(a) may cause public harm, and

(b) by reason of the nature and character of its content, context or any other relevant circumstance gives rise to the inference that it was created or disseminated in order to deceive;

“election campaign period” means—

(a) such period (including an electoral period) as may be prescribed by the Commission, by order, from time to time and in relation to any election or referendum, commencing on a date before an impending election or referendum and ending on polling day at the time at which the polls close, which dates shall be set out in a notice published by the Commission, in such manner as it thinks fit, not less than 7 days before the earlier date,

(b) the period commencing 3 months prior to the latest date when an election is required by law to be held and ending when the electoral period ends, or

(c) where paragraphs (a) and (b) do not apply, the electoral period;

“electoral period” means the period of time commencing on the day of the making of a polling day order and ending on polling day;

“look-alike targeting” means the use of data from an existing online audience to identify other persons who have similar characteristics or are engaged in similar activities on an online platform;

“manipulative or inauthentic behaviour” means tactics, techniques and procedures that—

(a) constitute the deceptive use of services or features provided by an online platform, including user conduct having the object of artificially amplifying the reach or perceived public support of particular content,

(b) are likely to influence the information visible to other users of that platform,

(c) by reason of their nature and character, context or any other relevant circumstance, give rise to the inference that they are intended to result in the dissemination, publication or increased circulation of false or misleading online electoral information, and

(d) may cause public harm.

“micro-targeting” means a targeting method involving the use of data analysis techniques, tools or other methods to address, transmit or communicate a tailored online political advertisement either to a specific person or group of persons or to increase the circulation, reach or visibility of an online political advertisement;

“misinformation”, for the purposes of this Act, means any false or misleading online electoral process information that may cause public harm, whether or not the information was created or disseminated with knowledge of its falsity or misleading nature or with any intention to cause such harm;

“online electoral information” means—

(a) any online electoral process information, or

(b) any online content relating to—

(i) a candidate in an election,

(ii) a political party that has candidates standing in an election,

(iii) issues that are of relevance to an election, or

(iv) issues that are of relevance to a referendum;

“online electoral process information” means online content of a factual nature relating to the holding of an election or referendum including but not limited to the registration of voters or candidates, voting times and locations, arrangements for postal voting, the secrecy of the ballot, the counting of votes and any other factual content relating to the holding of a particular election or referendum or to elections or referendums more generally;

“online platform” means any host, operator or provider of a website, web application or digital application accessible to the general public or a section of the public where the website, web application or digital application—

(a) has at least 100,000 unique monthly users in the State for a period of not less than 7 months during the 12 months immediately preceding the date of the making of a polling day order, and

(b) displays any content that has political purposes, including but not limited to online political advertisements;

“online political advertisement” has the meaning assigned to it by Part 4 ;

“political party” has the meaning assigned to it by Part 2 ;

“political purposes” has the meaning assigned to it by section 22 (2)(aa) of the Electoral Act 1997 ;

“polling day order” means an order made by the Minister appointing a day for the holding of a poll which—

(a) in the case of a Dáil election, is made under section 96(1) of the Act of 1992,

(b) in the case of a European election, is made under section 10(1) of the Act of 1997,

(c) in the case of a local election, is made under section 26(2) of the Act of 2001,

(d) in the case of a presidential election, is made under section 6(1)(c) of the Act of 1993,

(e) in the case of a referendum, is made under section 10, 11 or 12 of the Act of 1994, or

(f) in the case of a Seanad election, is made under section 12 of the Seanad Electoral (University Members) Act 1937 and under section 24 of the Seanad Electoral (Panel Members) Act 1947 ;

“public harm” means any serious threat to the fairness or integrity of an election or referendum;

“recommender system” means a fully or partially automated system used by an online platform to suggest in its online interface specific information to recipients of the service, including as a result of a search initiated by the recipient or otherwise determining the relative order or prominence of information displayed.