Ireland is offering to pay up to $92,000 for people to live on its 30 remote, idyllic islands off the western coast in an attempt to revitalize the islands that have rolling green hills, emerald seas, and moody skies as a realistic option for long-term living.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/124673

The anti-free speech movement has become openly Orwellian in claiming to protect freedom by limiting freedom. It also employs using terms like disinformation, misinformation, and malinformation to obscure their effort to silence those with opposing views. Rather than use “censorship,” they refer to “content moderation.”

"We are restricting freedom but we are doing it for the common good.”

Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich has declared free speech is “tyranny.”

What is particularly chilling is how low the threshold is for denying free speech, according to O’Reilly. It now appears that “deep discomfort” is enough.

It is part of an unrelenting movement in Europe, particularly by the European Union, to rollback Western free speech values that once defined countries.

Ireland now stands on the precipice of freedom.

Ireland is declaring “no free speech for haters” and assumes the authority to define who are haters and who are not.

Intended to be a Protestant majority nation, six counties had been partitioned from Ireland, based on religious data from the 1911 census. Then, 34.4 percent of what would be Northern Ireland was Catholic and 61.4 percent was Protestant, a ratio of 1:2.

Just over 100 years later, the switch has finally happened, which according to The Guardian was anticipated due to Catholic birth rates being higher.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/83281

The family of a woman who was sexually assaulted in Dungarvan, County Waterford, Ireland, has been told by Gardai (the state police force of the Irish Republic) to remove a social media post that identified the perpetrators as foreign men.

The family contents that, since the suspects have not been arrested, they were sharing information to help protect other women in the community. But apparently that is not as important as protecting the image of migrants.

cross-posted from: https://community.nicfab.it/post/24561

The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has fined Meta Platforms €390 million (roughly $414 million) over its handling of user data for serving personalized ads in what could be a major blow to its ad-fueled business model.

To that end, the privacy regulator has ordered Meta Ireland to pay two fines – a €210 million ($222.5 million) fine over violations of the E.U. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) related to Facebook, and a €180 million ($191 million) for similar violations in Instagram.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/70647

According to the government, such options would require too many changes to the country's constitution and laws at national and cantonal levels. They added now wasn't the right time to overhaul the system, citing a 2020 report via the national ethics commission.

Meanwhile, third-gender options on official documents are allowed in several European countries, including Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, Norway, and Belgium. An increasing number of western cou

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/66042

Under the DPC’s draft decision, Facebook would be allowed to dispense with the need to ask users for consent to use their data and to provide the right to opt out of such consent each time they log on to the platform.

Instead, consent would be one of the terms and conditions of the contract accepted by users when they sign up for the service in the first place. And they would not be able to opt out without being shut out of the social media platform altogether.

According to Helen McEntee, Minister for Justice of Ireland, hate speech is not about free speech. She said hate speech is intended to silence people and to make them afraid to open up.

cross-posted from: https://community.nicfab.it/post/19157

Twitter has told the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) that there are currently no changes to controllership or to its Irish board.

The DPC met Twitter's new acting Data Protection Officer this week to discuss concerns about the departures of senior executives from the company.

Among those who left recently was its Chief Privacy and Data Protection Officer, Irish man Damien Kieran.

cross-posted from: https://community.nicfab.it/post/18968

The Irish data protection will monitor closely the situation at Twitter after the social media company said it would continue to make decisions on the processing of personal data for EU users from their Irish office.

The Data Protection Commissioner, the lead regulator for some of the biggest tech giants operating in Europe, met representatives from Twitter on Monday afternoon after raising concerns about the company’s obligations under EU rules.

The Irish watchdog had requested a meeting with Twitter late last week to establish whether the social media platform would continue to make decisions in terms of the processing of personal data for EU users from their Irish office.

cross-posted from: https://community.nicfab.it/post/18969

Helmed by erratic new owner Elon Musk, Twitter is no longer fulfilling key obligations required for it to claim Ireland as its so-called main establishment under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a source familiar with the matter has told TechCrunch. Our source, who is well placed, requested and was granted anonymity owing to the sensitivity of the issue — which could have major ramifications for Twitter and for Musk. Like many major tech firms with customers across the European Union, Twitter currently avails itself of a mechanism in the GDPR known as the one-stop shop (OSS). This is beneficial because it allows the company to streamline regulatory administration by being able to engage exclusively with a lead data supervisor in the EU Member State where it is “main established” (in Twitter’s case, Ireland), rather than having to accept inbound from data protection authorities across the bloc.

That a senior Irish politician would take the time to weigh in on the fate of the mostly foreign employees of a Big Tech company based in San Francisco, at a time when Ireland is facing a cost of living crisis, energy crisis, and migrant crisis, may be evidence of what some see as the left-liberal establishment’s obsession with what is said and what can be said on Twitter, long a playground for leftist politics and partisan journalism.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/53943

Makes you wonder why more parents are not opting to have one of them stay home and enjoy the kids while they are young.

They cannot be coming out ahead financially if the are spending a third of their pre tax income on child care.

I bet the childcare costs are inflated by government regulations.

cross-posted from: https://community.nicfab.it/post/14421

The office of the Data Protection Commissioner is examining a data breach at dairy processor Tirlán, concerning the private data of farmers being sent to incorrect recipients.

Tirlán has apologised to its milk suppliers over the issue which occurred when monthly milk statements for August were sent to suppliers.

A significant number of those statements, which are issued by a third-party company, contained data not belonging to the recipients.

cross-posted from: https://community.nicfab.it/post/14034

The European Commission has defended its monitoring of data protection rules in Ireland.

The Commission was replying to a request for more information from the EU Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly.

She launched an investigation in February following a complaint to her office from Dr Johnny Ryan, a senior fellow at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties.

He had expressed concerns about the Commission's monitoring of Ireland's application of data protection rules.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/39678

“I cannot do that, transgenderism is contrary to my Christian belief,” Burke told the High Court.

He said the school’s request was contrary to the ethos of the school and the teachings of the Church of Ireland in addition to the teachings of all major religions in Ireland.

He said he respected the law and the court system but added that he could not comply with the court order as doing so would make him a hypocrite.

Burke said he could not purge his contempt because he believed it was something he considered to be a breach of his Christian beliefs.