Polish govt opposes deletion of far-right party's Facebook profile

Poland will continue to protect freedom of speech in the country and in the whole of Europe and informed Facebook that it does not agree with the company’s decision, a government digital affairs official has said.

Last week, Facebook removed the official Confederation party profile. According to a statement, the Confederation party's page was removed due to repeated violations of Facebook's hate speech rules and the COVID-19 misinformation rules.

Janusz Cieszyński, government plenipotentiary for cyber security, said at a press conference that "the Polish government has already informed Meta (Facebook) that we do not agree with this approach. We believe that the justification provided is not authentic," Cieszyński added.

He argued that even if the Confederation profile contained content that the government strongly did not support, for example disinformation about vaccinations, there was the option of an "adequate response", for example deleting a specific post.

On Friday, during Cieszyński's meeting in the Sejm (lower house) with representatives of parliamentary clubs and circles, the issues of new European regulations regarding political advertising were discussed.

"We asked representatives of all parliamentary forces to submit their comments. These are works that, in our opinion, will have a significant impact on how politics works on the internet, we want Poland to be an active participant in these discussions," Cieszyński said.

He added that platforms like Facebook are an essential part of social and political life in Europe.

Cieszyński declared that work will be continued both in Poland and in the European arena, "so that everyone can be sure that they can operate in a transparent manner on the internet" and that the key values of freedom of speech are adequately protected.