Civil rights movement files complaint for appointing former Meta lobbyist as DPC Commissioner

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has lodged a formal complaint against Ireland with the European Commission for appointing a former Meta lobbyist as Commissioner at the Irish privacy regulator.

Last month, the Data Protection Commission (DPC) announced that Niamh Sweeney, a former senior lobbyist for Meta, was set to join the data protection and privacy supervisor.

Her appointment immediately raised concerns with advocacy groups, fearing that American big tech companies would be able to police themselves in the European Economic Area (EEA) and get away with all kinds of GDPR violations.

“For decades, the Irish government denied being too close to US big tech. With this appointment, all masks seem to be off. Ireland is officially kissing US big tech’s backside on the global stage. At least this brings some honesty to the situation we’ve witnessed over the last 15 years,” Max Schrems, Chairman of Austrian privacy organization noyb, warned.

The ICCL agrees with Schrems’ point of view. According to the Irish civil rights movement, Ireland failed to provide safeguards for independence and impartiality in its process to appoint a new Data Protection Commissioner.

On top of that, the selection panel that was tasked to appoint a new Data Protection Commissioner lacked expertise. The only member with any knowledge and expertise about data protection was a ‘big tech lawyer,’ who may be conflicted by close association with tech sector clients.

“The result was the appointment of an individual who appears to have no technical, legal, or investigative expertise. To the contrary, the appointee was in fact lobbying against a high standard of protection of personal data and the objectives of the DPC in their previous roles,” the ICCL points out.

Therefore, the civil rights movement has submitted a formal complaint against Ireland to the European Commission to intervene.

The DPC is the lead privacy regulator in the EU because large tech companies, such as Apple, Google, and Meta, have their main offices in Dublin. The supervisor has often been accused of being biased in favor of big tech companies.

Data protection authorities from other EU Member States have repeatedly complained that the DPC’s fines for GDPR violations by American tech companies were inadequate, forcing the Irish data protection and privacy regulator to reconsider its decision.

Unlock more exclusive Cybernews content on YouTube.