Tusk: I don't understand this decision. We will find ways to increase security online

The government will find non-statutory ways to increase online security, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced on Friday. He added that he did not understand the president's decision to veto the amendment enabling the issuance of orders to online platforms to remove illegal content.

– I have a fundamentally different opinion when it comes to the president's vetoes. I will say carefully that I do not understand how you can veto a bill that is supposed to make the state more efficient in the fight against pedophilia on the Internet, propaganda and Russian information on the Internet – said the head of government during the Friday conference.

Donald Tusk emphasized that the abuse of freedom of speech on the Internet poses a threat to citizens, especially children, as well as to the Polish state. He emphasized that the state must have tools that will allow it to eliminate illegal content from the Internet. The Prime Minister announced that the government will find non-statutory ways to increase online security.

– I warn my ministers – seeing how energetically the president vetoes everything that comes from the government – to consider whether it makes sense to submit bills that we know will be vetoed anyway for non-substantive reasons. Because these are purely political reasons to make it difficult for the government to function. You have to get used to ruling and fixing what is necessary without laws. (…) We will find ways to increase network security, he noted.

President Karol Nawrocki announced on Friday that he had vetoed the amendment to the Act on the provision of electronic services. It was intended to enable the presidents of UKE and KRRiT to issue orders to online platforms to remove illegal content relating to 27 prohibited acts, mainly under the Criminal Code. This includes: o: criminal threats, incitement to commit suicide, praising pedophilic behavior, promoting 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 Act also listed content infringing copyrights or relating to the illegal sale of goods or the illegal provision of services.

In the president's opinion, the act would in practice amount to administrative censorship.

– Instead of real judicial control, an absurd solution was introduced – an objection to the official's decision, which the citizen must submit within 14 days – Nawrocki pointed out.

The president emphasized that, in his opinion, the solutions proposed in the act create a system in which an ordinary Pole would have to fight with the official apparatus to defend his right to express his opinion. – There can be no consent to this. (…) As president, I cannot sign a bill that in practice means administrative censorship – he added. (PAP)

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