Minister of State Niall Collins attends the EU Internet Forum in Brussels

Minister of State Niall Collins attends the EU Internet Forum in Brussels

• From: Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration

• Published on: 4 March 2026
• Last updated on: 4 March 2026

• EU Internet Forum endorsed a revised EU Online Crisis Response Framework, to enable a joint response to protect users online in times of crisis, and ensure the timely removal of content related to suspected terrorist or violent extremist attacks
• Discussed addressing the emerging threat of nihilistic extremism
• Discussed collective actions to protect minors from being radicalised online
• Exchanged views on innovative approaches to tackling antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred online

4 March 2026

Niall Collins TD, Minister of State with special responsibility for International Law, Law Reform and Youth Justice, represented Ireland at a Ministerial Meeting of the EU Internet Forum in Brussels today.

The Forum brings together relevant EU Ministers, technology companies and experts to discuss and advance responses to terrorism, violent extremism and illegal content online.

At the meeting, Ministers endorsed a revised EU Online Crisis Response Framework for the rapid removal of online content relating to terrorist attacks. This new Framework builds on the EU Internet Forum Protocol which was developed in the aftermath of the Christchurch terrorist attack in 2019, footage of which circulated widely online at the time.

The new Framework includes additional measures to enable Member States' law enforcement authorities to share early warning alerts with other EU Internet Forum members in case of a suspected terrorist or violent extremist attack. This will allow for better monitoring and quicker action in case the situation develops into an online crisis.

Speaking about the Framework, Minister Collins said:

"If a terrorist incident occurs, it is important that we deny terrorists the publicity they are seeking. It is equally important that we respect and prevent the re-traumatisation of victims, their families and their communities and limit the potentially radicalising effects of harmful material shared online.

"Ireland remains committed to countering violent extremism and terrorism online and to the prompt and efficient removal of such online content. The Framework provides a strengthened mechanism for law enforcement and online service providers and platforms to work together to ensure an effective and rapid response to an incident and to limit the impacts of harmful material online."

The meeting also contained two round table discussions, the first of which opened with a presentation by Professor Maura Conway (Dublin City University and member of the EU Knowledge Hub Research Committee) on the threat landscape and risks to minors stemming from terrorism and violent extremism online.

Increasingly, these risks are interlinked with other harms, such as exploitation, self-harm, child sexual abuse and recruitment into organised crime. The presentation served as an introduction for the roundtable discussion on innovative actions and cooperation to better protect children online.

Contributing to the roundtable discussion, Minister Collins said:

"Protecting children from online harm is a key priority for Ireland, as laid out in the Programme for Government. Children can be more vulnerable to radicalisation due to developmental, psychological and social characteristics which can increase their susceptibility to influence, manipulation and recruitment by extremist actors.

"Effective cooperation to address this requires a universal understanding of how exposure to harm and exploitation can impact a child and how harm is often influenced by multiple and intersecting disadvantages including mental health challenges and neurodiversity."

The second roundtable session opened with a presentation by Sasha Havlicek, Co-Founder and CEO of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), on the increase of antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred online. Ministers and industry representatives then discussed actions being taken and required to effectively tackle this issue.

Speaking on this, Minister Collins said:

"Ireland strongly condemns all forms of racism, antisemitism, anti-Muslim hatred, xenophobia and intolerance in all fora, including in online spaces. We welcome a proactive and coordinated approach to address these issues and acknowledge that both an inter-agency and a combined public/private sector response is required to effectively combat online hatred against all minoritised groups."

ENDS…///

Notes for editors

The EU Internet Forum (EUIF) was launched by the Commission in December 2015 and addresses the misuse of the internet for terrorist purposes through two main actions:

• reducing accessibility to terrorist content online
• increasing the volume of effective alternative narratives online

The Forum's activities also cover the fight against child sexual abuse online (since 2019), drug trafficking online and trafficking in human beings online (since 2022) - https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/networks/european-union-internet-forum_en