Coimisiún na Meán probe against X will go on, Ireland High Court rules

DUBLIN, Ireland: A Coimisiún na Meán investigation into complaints received by the media watchdog from users of the social media platform X will continue, the High Court has ruled.

X Internet Unlimited Company asked the High Court to overturn a decision by the commission to share information from certain complaints with its internal "supervisory" team for possible future investigation. The complaints were related to X's own complaints system.

The complaints received by the commission were filed under the provisions of the EU's Digital Services Act.

In its judicial review case, X argued that the commission acted unlawfully by referring the information to the supervisory team. The commission disputed this, maintaining that it had the authority to pass the relevant information to that team.

As part of the legal challenge, X also requested a stay preventing the commission from using the complaint information until the court proceedings were resolved.

In a judgment published on March 5, Judge Cian Ferriter refused to grant the stay sought by X.

The judge said he believed the lawyers for X had exaggerated the extent of the company's harm if the stay was not granted. He also said X had downplayed the public interest in the "orderly operation" of the complaints system established under the Digital Services Act and the Broadcasting Act 2009.

The judge also said the commission was entitled to the presumption that its decisions are valid.

In its application for the stay, X listed several grounds, arguing that allowing the commission's investigation to continue would cause the company serious and irreparable harm.

X also argued that if the investigation were completed before the legal proceedings were heard, the case could become pointless and deprive the company of an effective remedy. It further claimed that continuing the investigation would create legal uncertainty and force it to incur costs that could not be recovered.

X is currently involved in several legal disputes with the media regulator. In one of the cases before the courts, the platform's billionaire owner, Elon Musk, is personally named as the plaintiff.

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