The government of Donald Tusk recently adopted a draft amendment to the Act on Providing Services by Electronic Means. Critics of the document argue that it is a way to introduce censorship on the internet “through the back door”. Will President Karol Nawrocki veto this law? Adam Andruszkiewicz, Deputy Head of the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland, spoke on the matter.
Government draft on DSA – censorship online
At the beginning of November this year, a public hearing was held in the Sejm on the implementation of the EU Digital Services Act (DSA). The document foresees the creation of a “trusted flagger” status – acting as a coordinator for digital services. In Poland, this role would be held by an official, the President of the Office of Electronic Communications (UKE).
The proposed competencies of this institution include powers that some people perceived as akin to censorship – associations that also sparked controversy around the earlier ACTA agreement. ACTA, presented as an international agreement on the protection of intellectual property rights, was criticized as a potential pretext for limiting civil liberties and introducing internet censorship; due to massive protests, the agreement never came into force.
Dr. Jolanta Hajdasz pointed out that, in the view of the Polish Journalists Association (SDP), the proposed mechanism is an indirect way to introduce internet censorship in Poland and “allows those in power to interfere with content published online using the structure of state administration”.
Will the president veto the law?
Adam Andruszkiewicz, Deputy Head of the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland, spoke on the matter in the program ‘Convince Me’ (“Przekonaj mnie”).
“The current ruling team came up with the idea of giving officials from the Office of Electronic Communications the ability to censor the internet, for example by turning off or removing online content without court involvement, de facto in this matter,” he said.
He added that “it could be the case that if a given official decides that channel X or Y is not to their liking, because, for example, it presents content not aligned with their ideological line, they will just turn it off.”
“They want to introduce such a law in Poland, but fortunately we had presidential elections and fortunately President Karol Nawrocki won,” he reminded.
When asked whether President Karol Nawrocki would decide to veto this harmful law, he replied: “We’ll see, the president will make a decision, but never will the president put his hand to introduce censorship in Poland, just to be clear.”