Jakub Kocjan, President of the Action Democracy Foundation, is not a collaborator of NASK, does not co -create an election umbrella – PAP told Jacek Dziura from NASK. Kocjan did not meet individually with Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski – assured the Ministry of Digitization.
On Wednesday, a scientific and academic computer network (NASK), subordinate to the department of digitization, informed about a possible attempt to interfere in the election campaign. It was about political advertising on Facebook, which – as Nask said – could be financed from abroad. Wirtualna Polska (WP) wrote on Thursday that behind political advertisements published on the Internet promoting Rafał Trzaskowski and attacking his competitors, there is an employee and volunteers of the Akcja Democracy Foundation, whose president is Jakub Kocjan. WP journalists added that Kocjan on May 9 talked to the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Digitization Krzysztof Gawkowski about the safe conduct of elections, during a meeting organized by NASK as part of the election umbrella.
“Jakub Kocjan is not a collaborator of NASK and does not co -create an election umbrella in any way,” said Jacek Dziura, director of the Media Division and NASK communication.
He added that Kocjan came to an open meeting about disinformation, which was organized by NASK as part of the election umbrella. Meetings are intended for non -governmental organizations, influencers and journalists, and there have been 11 of them so far – pointed out the hole.
“Meetings and trainings that we organize are lecture and conversations with representatives of the Disinformation Analysis Center operating in NASK. We invited to participate in meetings interested in people through open communication in social media. The goal of the training was to provide information on how disinformation works, how to avoid it, how not to succumb to it” – emphasized the director of NASK communication.
He noted that during the lecture “there was no dedicated meeting” Kocjan with Krzysztof Gawkowski. “The Prime Minister participated in the first part of the meeting. He greeted the participants, told about the challenges that the election process brings and why such trainings are important, and also took a commemorative photo with the participants,” said Jacek Dziura.
“Mr. Kocjan was not and is not associated with the Ministry of Digitization. There were no individual meetings” – MC press office passed PAP. In the announcement on the website, the Resort reported that the electoral umbrella is working, and cases of disinformation are disclosed and reported to the relevant authorities.
ABW was informed about the possible attempt to interfere in the election campaign. According to NASK on Wednesday afternoon, the ads were blocked. Advertising accounts involved in the campaign in the last seven days have to spend more on political materials than any election committee. They particularly concerned Rafał Trzaskowski, Karol Nawrocki and Sławomir Mentzen; The actions taken were to seem to support one of the candidates and discredit others.
The NASK press office was referred to the NASK reports. “Our findings show that the administrator associated with these pages confirmed his identity and is in Poland. We found no evidence of foreign interference,” they were reported. Meta added that it did not block the posts, and the paid campaign simply came to an end.
Wirtualna Polska wrote on Thursday that for political advertisements published on the Internet promoting Rafał Trzaskowski and attacking his competitors, there is an employee and volunteers of the Akcja Democracy Foundation, whose president is Jakub Kocjan. The ads were to be published by Facebook profiles “You know how it is not” and “adult table”, whose administrator is unknown. The first profile spent almost PLN 286 thousand on advertising, and the second over PLN 141 thousand. zloty. The most expensive single promoted posts cost up to 40,000 PLN and had millions of ranges.
Journalists of the WP portal managed to identify three people appearing in advertisements and contact them. They all stated that people associated with the Akcja Democracy Foundation encouraged them to participate in spots.
In a statement published on Thursday in social media, Democracy said that as a foundation he is not involved in the activities of the profiles “you know how it is not” and “adult table”. She informed that the Foundation's many years of IT services asked for the recommendation of people ready to participate in “Profrection” Spot, and the Foundation recommended their volunteers.
“The decision whether and in what form a person decides to give a statement remained completely at the responsibility of these people” – noted Democracy in a statement.
The company in question is Estratos Digital GmbH based in Vienna, providing for the “Technology Services and Consultations in the field of communication” for the Foundation. As WP pointed out, by 2023 she appeared under the name Datadat. It is headed by two Hungarians: Ádám Ficsor (Minister for Special Services in the leftist government of Gordon Bajnaia, i.e. from the time before Victor Orban's era) and Viktor Szigetvari.
The majority shareholder of Estratos is the American Fund Higher Ground Labs Fund III LP. According to OKO.press on Thursday, this fund on its website indicates that “it finances technology that helps the candidates win” and is associated with the American Democratic Party. It was founded in the USA in 2017 to support democratic environments after Donald Trump's first victory with modern technologies. His goal was and is to mobilize democratic voters.
Monika Blandyna Lewkowicz (PAP)
MBL/ WAL/ MMU/ MHR/
