BOOM! Poland Will Fine Big Tech $13.5 Million Per Case For Removing Ideological Content: “Poland spent 45 years under Communism…It taught us the value of free speech”

 

Speaking to Fox News, the architect of the law, Deputy Polish Justice Minister Sebastian Kaleta, said social media companies have for too long been targeting conservatives, Christianity, and traditional values by banning them and removing posts and the Polish government is saying “enough!” 

“We see that when Big Tech decides to remove content for political purposes, it’s mostly content which praises traditional values or praises conservatism,” he said, “and it is deleted under their ‘hate speech policy’ when it has no legal right to do so.” 

After identifying the problem, it is the financially costly solution that might end up making this so effective: Under the new legislation, any platform that bans a user would face fines of $13.5 million unless the content is also illegal under Polish law. An arbitration committee would be set up to oversee disputes. 

Tech companies had reached a point where they were deciding what was legal and what was not –, but that was not their role, Kaleta says. “Freedom of speech is not something that anonymous moderators working for private companies should decide,” he said. 

“Instead, that is for the national body; duly elected officials and all industries, car, phones, finance — were unregulated till they grew too large — the same should happen with Big Tech.” 

He added that the removal of former U.S. President Donald Trump from social media platforms was just another example of Big Tech overreach and set a dangerous precedent. “It’s very disturbing because if Big Tech sees themselves as an organization empowered enough to ban a sitting president of the U.S., it sends a message to the world –that we can ban anyone, whenever we want,” he added. Doesn’t this sound like what you’d expect an American politician to say and do? 

Yet, they have done nothing. President Trump had four years to address this issue and did nothing until very late. This is very likely because no one in the GOP was willing to address the issue. They are all afraid or in the pockets of big tech. People like Ted Cruz talk a big game, but nothing ever happens. If we do not do something quickly, we will end up in the same position Poland was in in the mid-century 1900s: 

Poland spent 45 years under communism, and Kaleta says that experience has taught it the value of free speech and that when the country sees these disturbing new trends toward censorship, the red light goes on.