![\"\"](\"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/leoVaradkar18March_large.jpg\")
A government minister has rejected claims the Taoiseach lobbied Facebook and Google to restrict adverts related to the country\u2019s abortion referendum.<\/p>\nA government minister has rejected claims the Taoiseach lobbied Facebook and Google to restrict adverts related to the country\u2019s abortion referendum.<\/p>\n
Culture minister Josepha Madigan was responding to an allegation by independent parliamentarian and anti-abortion campaigner Mattie McGrath.<\/p>\n
Google announced last week that it is to ban all adverts about the upcoming referendum on Ireland\u2019s strict abortion laws.<\/p>\n
The move by Google came a day after Facebook announced it would block foreign campaign material on its platform.<\/p>\n
Irish data protection commissioner Helen Dixon had previously raised concern that foreign actors could try to influence the referendum.<\/p>\n
Anti-abortion campaigners have been angered by the moves, claiming they represent an attempt to stifle debate on the contentious issue.<\/p>\n
Mr McGrath said rules on advertising during referenda campaigns should be set by the Irish parliament and should not be left to companies to make their own calls.<\/p>\n
He then claimed Taoiseach Leo Varadkar had urged the corporations to act.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people can see what\u2019s going on \u2013 they don\u2019t trust the Government,\u201d he told RTE\u2019s The Week In Politics.<\/p>\n
Minister Madigan, who also appeared on the program, said she \u201cabsolutely\u201d denied the claim.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to see the evidence of that deputy McGrath \u2013 that is a really strong allegation to make,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe corporations made these decisions quite rightly by themselves and we welcome them overall.\u201d<\/p>\n
Voters will take to the polls on May 25 to decide if they want to repeal the Eighth Amendment.<\/p>\n
They will vote on whether the contentious amendment, which gives the mother and unborn an equal right to life, should be replaced with wording that hands responsibility for setting the country\u2019s abortion laws to politicians.<\/p>\n
If the public votes to repeal, the government will table legislation that would permit women to legally abort within 12 weeks of pregnancy.<\/p>\n
Mr Varadkar has set up a cross-departmental group to examine the issue of campaign adverts in a bid to protect the integrity of the electoral process going forward.<\/p>\n
Outlining its rationale for the ban on Wednesday, a Google spokeswoman said: \u201cFollowing our update around election integrity efforts globally, we have decided to pause all ads related to the Irish referendum on the Eighth Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The technology giant\u2019s ban will cover its Google and YouTube sites, and will stay in place until after the vote.<\/p>\n
Explaining its decision to stop ads from foreign sources, Facebook said on Tuesday: \u201cOur company approach is to build tools to increase transparency around political advertising so that people know who is paying for the ads they are seeing, and to ensure any organisation running a political ad is located in that country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Facebook had already introduced a view ads feature \u2013 which enables Irish users to see all ads any advertiser is running on Facebook in Ireland at the same time.<\/p>\n