Poland's President Vetoes EU Digital Services Act
Poland's President Andrzej Duda has vetoed the implementation of the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA), citing concerns that it could lead to censorship. The move emphasizes state-guaranteed freedom of speech over the EU's platform regulation framework. This represents a significant challenge from a member state to a cornerstone of the EU's digital policy.
- The vetoed Polish law went beyond the EU's DSA requirements by proposing that the President of the Office of Electronic Communications (OEC), a government administrative body, could review and block online content deemed illegal. President Duda argued this created a risk of "administrative censorship" where a state official, not a court, could decide what is permissible online. - Poland was required to appoint a national Digital Services Coordinator and implement the DSA by February 17, 2024. Due to this failure to implement the EU regulation on time, the country now faces potential fines from the European Court of Justice of up to €9.5 million. - The President’s veto was not against the EU's Digital Services Act itself, which he has described as a "good regulation," but specifically against the Polish government's chosen method of implementation. His objections also included a provision to provide public funding for "trusted flaggers"—entities that report illegal content—which he argued was not mandated by the DSA and could support "censors of the 'wrongthinking'". - Overriding a presidential veto in Poland requires a three-fifths majority in the Sejm (the lower house of parliament). The current pro-EU government, led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, does not have this majority, making an override unlikely. - This veto is part of a broader political friction between President Andrzej Duda, who is aligned with the previous national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government, and the current centrist coalition. This tension has seen previous clashes over rule-of-law reforms, which resulted in the EU imposing significant financial penalties on Poland. - Prior to the final version passed by parliament, an earlier draft of the law had drawn even wider criticism from human rights groups for allowing content to be blocked without giving authors a chance to respond. While safeguards were later added, the President still deemed the final version a threat to free speech. - In response to the veto, Poland's Ministry of Digital Affairs has begun working on a new draft bill to implement the DSA. The new proposal is expected to rely more on court orders for content blocking rather than administrative decisions, addressing the core of the President's "administrative censorship" concerns.
