European privacy advocates are hopping mad at what they see as an attempt by the Irish government to draw a veil over the activities of the country’s data protection authority—which has jurisdiction over many of Big Tech’s activities in the European Union, and which has been heavily criticized for failing to crack down on the likes of Meta fast or hard enough.
Last year, the Irish government proposed a rather innocuous piece of legislation called—please stay awake—the Courts and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2022. Having passed through most of the legislative process, the bill will see its final debate in Ireland’s lower house of parliament on Wednesday, but last week the government dropped in a last-minute amendment, triggering a row that broke out today.
