On September 16, the social-media platform updated its user agreement for Europeans “to reflect that the Reddit products and services are provided by Reddit Netherlands BV”. The American company said this would take effect immediately.
Because this “question of jurisdiction” has arisen, the regulator Coimisiún na Meán has confirmed that the Online Safety Code will not apply to Reddit, at least initially. “We are engaging further with Reddit as regards the jurisdiction,” said Niamh Hodnett, the online safety commissioner.
The platform was already taking a legal challenge against the regulator’s decision to officially designate it as a video-sharing platform to which the code would apply. It has been given leave to take its case to the Court of Appeal, after failing in a challenge to the High Court.
Reddit challenged its designation on the basis that it is mostly a text-based discussion platform, and links to videos uploaded elsewhere on the internet should not be factored in. The Irish regulator counter-argued that the audio-visual content on the platform is extensive, and pointed to its enormous reach, with 73 million daily users.
After losing its case in the High Court last summer, a spokeswoman for Reddit told the Irish Independent: “We disagree with the court’s decision that merely allowing links to videos hosted by other platforms can result in a platform being regulated as if it were a video-hosting platform itself. This is an unprecedented interpretation of EU law that will have broadly sweeping implications for the internet if applied to other discussion-based platforms.”
Contacted today, the spokeswoman said she had nothing further to share.
The impasse means the code will only apply to nine video-sharing platforms for now, including X, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. It requires them to restrict certain categories of video, so that users cannot share content on cyberbullying, promoting eating disorders, promotion of self harm or incitement to hatred on a number of grounds.
There are hefty penalties for those who breach the code, including fines of up 10pc of relevant turnover, or €20m, whichever is the greater.
Ms Hodnett said the adoption of the Code, which comes into effect on November 19, brings an end to the era of self-regulation by social media. “The code sets binding rules for video-sharing platforms to follow in order to reduce the harm they can cause to users,” she said.
“We will work to make sure that people know their rights when they go online and we will hold the platforms to account and take action when they don’t live up to their obligations.”
Ms Hodnett stressed that Coimisiún na Meán is not a content regulator, and does not take down content itself. “We are not a censor,” she said. Instead it is up to the public to make complaints to platforms about content, with the commission’s role being to check that companies have taken action to make their platforms safer.
She said there had been good engagement by the social media companies so far but once the code comes into effect, the responsibility passes to the regulator’s supervisory team.
A draft code was sent to the European Commission last summer for checking, and Ms Hodnett said Brussels had not asked for any changes to be made.