MP Krzysztof Bosak, one of the leaders of the party, emphasizes that Confederation’s Facebook profile was the most popular profile among political parties in Poland. With almost 700,000 followers, it reached multi-million popularity. “This is a blatant example of political censorship and interference in democracy. That is why Confederation has submitted a bill to give the National Electoral Commission the opportunity to punish platforms for preventive censorship.”

Facebook removed the Confederation account on January 5th. According to the Facebook administrator, the party’s profile was blocked after publishing disinformation on the Covid-19 pandemic, on a regular basis.

Janusz Cieszyński, the minister of digitization, first pledged that on behalf of the government he would support the party’s efforts to restore the account. The initiative was bolstered by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who wrote “Freedom of speech only makes sense if everyone can freely present their views without destroying the freedom of others. Facebook’s decision to close the Confederation’s profile strikes at fundamental democratic values. There is not and there will be no consent from the Polish government”.

Adrian Andrzejewski