{"id":5311,"date":"2022-01-07T07:55:52","date_gmt":"2022-01-07T07:55:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/visegradpost.com\/?p=5311"},"modified":"2025-06-11T07:59:01","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T06:59:01","slug":"polands-konfederacja-party-banned-by-facebook-censorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/visegradpost.com\/en\/2022\/01\/07\/polands-konfederacja-party-banned-by-facebook-censorship\/","title":{"rendered":"Poland\u2019s Konfederacja party banned by Facebook censorship"},"content":{"rendered":"

Poland\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 A secretary of state at the Polish Prime Minister\u2019s Chancellery, Janusz Cieszy\u0144ski, announced on 5 January on\u00a0Twitter\u00a0that he had been informed of the imminent suppression of the Facebook account of\u00a0Konfederacja<\/em>, an alliance including the libertarian Korwin list and the nationalist National Movement (RN), with eleven MPs in the Sejm.<\/p>\n

\u201cA question of freedom of expression and universal values\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Konfederacja\u2019s account, followed by more than 671,000 users, was indeed removed from the social network shortly after, allegedly for \u201cviolating the Covid-19 information rules<\/em>\u201d. Janusz Cieszy\u0144ski said that the Polish government would formally protest about this to Meta (the new name of the company operating the Facebook social network):<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is simply a matter of freedom of expression and universal values that we all have to fight for, regardless of our particular opinions.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(\u2026)\u00a0Political parties compete with each other to get the support of citizens, and that is fine. That is what democracy is about.<\/em><\/p>\n

A channel of communication must not be suppressed by an arbitrary decision taken by an anonymous person, against which there is no possibility of appeal to the courts.<\/em>\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A formal\u00a0letter of protest\u00a0was sent to Meta from the PM\u2019s Chancellery on the same day.<\/p>\n

21st-century totalitarianism<\/strong><\/h4>\n

MP Robert Winnicki, co-chair of\u00a0Konfederacja,\u00a0<\/em>immediately reacted to the secretary of state\u2019s announcement, tweeting: \u201cThe largest profile of a Polish political party on Facebook<\/em>\u00a0[in terms of followers, ed.], that of Konfederacja, will be removed today by this social network\u2019s administration.<\/em><\/p>\n

Global corporations are once again attacking free speech and democracy. It is 21st-century totalitarianism, which must be fought at all costs.<\/em>\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The head of the\u00a0Independence March\u00a0Association, Robert B\u0105kiewicz, also\u00a0expressed his support\u00a0for\u00a0Konfederacja<\/em>\u00a0against Meta\/Facebook: \u201cThis is what the implementation of the world revolutionary interests looks like. Those who do not share these interests and oppose them are being destroyed.<\/em>\u00a0We demand that the Polish state pursue Polish interests. Legal jurisdiction over global social networks must be restored.<\/em>\u201d This is not the first time that\u00a0Konfederacja<\/em>\u00a0has been censored by Facebook. Janusz Korwin-Mikke, also a co-chair of the right-wing party,\u00a0had his Facebook account banned in November 2020, causing him to lose nearly 800,000 followers on the American social network.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis action by Facebook goes against democratic rules\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The\u00a0Konfederacja\u00a0<\/em>party has officially protested in a\u00a0statement: \u201cThis action by Facebook goes against democratic rules and, as such, it adversely affects the Polish national interest.\u00a0<\/em>(\u2026)<\/p>\n

We therefore announce the filing of a civil suit against Facebook, as well as the urgent introduction of a bill to protect those taking part in the democratic political debate from censorship<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We expect Konfederacja\u2019s profile to be reactivated with an explanation about what content violated Community Standards and in what way<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA true threat to free speech in the public debate\u201d<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The Prime Minister\u2019s Chancellery\u00a0issued a statement\u00a0in response to this disturbing interference in Polish politics:<\/p>\n

\u201cSuppressing an entire profile on the basis that it contains some scientifically incorrect information relating to the pandemic is an example of pre-emptive censorship and, in the absence of symmetrical action against other content of the same type, this raises the suspicion that the real reasons for the social media administration\u2019s decision may have been other than those given in their statement.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(\u2026)\u00a0To invoke the arguments of freedom of enterprise is totally inappropriate in this case, because it is precisely the control of monopolies, and not their free operation, that is the foundation of the market economy.<\/em><\/p>\n

Blocking access to Facebook for social organisations is a real threat to freedom of expression in the public debate.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(\u2026)\u00a0We expect a quick response from the social media\u2019s owner and the reactivation of the previous functionality\u00a0<\/em>[\u2026] [of Konfederacja\u2019s account].\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAn attack on fundamental democratic values\u201d<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki also made a point\u00a0of reacting personally on this issue of freedom of expression for Polish political parties:<\/p>\n

\u201cFreedom of expression only makes sense if everyone can freely express his or her point of view without infringing on the freedom of others. Facebook\u2019s decision to close Konfederacja\u2019s profile undermines fundamental democratic values. The Polish government cannot and will not accept this.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(\u2026)\u00a0I have often criticised Konfederacja\u2019s deputies and had arguments with them<\/em>,\u00a0and they have often criticised me. But criticising does not mean forcibly closing someone\u2019s mouth. That is why I am taking their side today. I do not agree that Konfederacja should have their right to express their opinions taken away.<\/em>\u201d Morawiecki also noted that\u00a0\u201cDigital censorship is a powerful threat to democracy today\u201d<\/em>, and that \u201csocial media owners need to understand that freedom of debate means that there are views we do not agree with.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Poland\u00a0\u2013 A secretary of state at the Polish Prime Minister\u2019s Chancellery, Janusz Cieszy\u0144ski, announced on 5 January on\u00a0Twitter\u00a0that he had been informed of the imminent suppression of the Facebook account of\u00a0Konfederacja, an alliance including the libertarian Korwin list and the nationalist National Movement (RN), with eleven MPs in the Sejm. \u201cA question of freedom of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"acf":{"subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/visegradpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/visegradpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/visegradpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visegradpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visegradpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/visegradpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visegradpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/visegradpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visegradpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visegradpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}