2025-11-20 14:50
publication
2025-11-20 14:50
On Thursday, the Parliamentary Digitization Committee recommended over 20 amendments to the draft amendment to the Act on the provision of electronic services. One of them assumes that the President of the Office of Electronic Communications will keep a register of domains violating copyright.
The proposed regulations are intended to ensure the effective application of the provisions of the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) in Poland, regarding, among others, blocking illegal content on the Internet. They assume that supervision over the application of DSA regulations in Poland will be exercised by the president of the Office of Electronic Communications (UKE) – in most cases, the National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT) – in the field of video platforms, and the president of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) – in the field of trading platforms and other matters related to consumer protection.
The project assumes that officials will be able to issue decisions on blocking content relating to 27 prohibited acts mainly the Penal Code, containing, among others: criminal threats, incitement to commit suicide, praising pedophilic behavior, propagating totalitarian ideologies, as well as incitement to hatred and insults based on national, ethnic, racial and religious differences – including content containing hate speech spread on social media. The project also lists content infringing copyrights and content relating to the illegal sale of goods or the illegal provision of services.
The Sejm Digitization Committee recommended that the Sejm adopt the act together with the proposed amendments. About 20 amendments were editorial and specific in nature, and four were substantive.
One of the recommended amendments assumes that the President of UKE will keep a register of domains violating DSA, i.e., among others: copyright. The project in its current form assumes that websites violating copyrights will be able to be included in the warning list maintained by CERT Polska, which allows for the blocking of domains that “mislead users and extort data from them.” Expanding the list of warnings to include sites violating copyright was criticized by cybersecurity circles, claiming that the list would lose transparency and its basic function of warning against online fraud.
The Digitization Committee also recommended amendments that provide a new possibility of unblocking content and grant the National Tax Administration judicial and procedural capacity so that the National Tax Administration can participate in proceedings related to violations of regulations.
The last recommended amendment assumes the abandonment of imposing administrative penalties on natural persons. As Deputy Minister of Digitization Dariusz Standerski pointed out during the commission, the idea is to ensure that an employee of a given entity does not receive penalties during the inspection, and that the entity takes full responsibility for violating the regulations.
At the same time, members of the committee expressed their opposition to the motion of PiS MPs who want the amendment to be rejected in its entirety. It also received a negative recommendation, among others: PiS amendment, which assumes that the court, and not UKE or KRRiT, will decide on the removal of illegal Internet content.
The draft amendment entitles natural persons and, among others, prosecutor's office, Police, National Tax Administration, Border Guard (in cases of human trafficking) to submit an application for an order to block illegal content. According to the provisions of the procedure, the author of the content in question will receive a notice from the Internet service provider about the initiation of the procedure and will have two days to present his position. There will be no appeal against the decision of UKE and KRRiT to remove the content, but the author will be able to file an objection to a common court.
The Digital Services Act (DSA) is the world's first digital regulation (regulation) to make companies across the EU responsible for the content they post on their platforms. It is fully applicable in member states from February 17, 2024. Articles 9 and 10 of the DSA indicate that state judicial and administrative authorities may order providers to block content on the Internet. (PAP)
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