Polish far-right party banned by Facebook

Facebook has blocked the account of Confederation, a Polish far-right party with 11 MPs, for repeated breaches of its rules on hate speech, and disinformation about Covid-19.

Confederation's account was removed before 2 p.m. on Wednesday and Facebook also informed Poland's Digitisation Ministry about its intentions to take down the page.

According to Facebook, Confederation used its social media account to publish content that "directly attacked other people... on grounds of nationality or sexual orientation."

The account was also a medium for spreading false information about the coronavirus pandemic and Covid-19 vaccines, Facebook said.

Krzysztof Bosak, a Confederation leader, expressed his outrage over the decision, saying that his grouping was "a Polish parliamentary opposition party."

"It is amazing that the Meta corporation, Facebook's operator, contacted the government but not us about the alleged breaches of regulations," Bosak said.

Bosak also claimed that "the information presented by Facebook to Polish media today is untrue."

He accused Facebook of not having warned Confederation that some of its posts may cause the account to be blocked. "We only had a few comments last year about removed posts... due to violation of community standards or hate speech rules."

"We see this situation as interference in Polish democracy," Bosak said.

The Polish Prime Minister's Office also criticised Facebook's move.

"The Office of the Prime Minister strongly disagrees with the decision that results in the limitation of the internet presence of a political party that operates legally in Poland," the statement read.

"The removal of parliamentary parties' social media accounts by the administrators of international portals threatens basic citizens' freedoms and cannot be accepted," the office added.