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Europe's Populists Fearful of Social Media Restrictions

Jamie Dettmer

   Europe's populist leaders are outraged by the decision of U.S.
   social-media giants to block U.S. President Donald Trump from posting
   on their sites. They fear Facebook, Twitter and other major social
   media companies could start banning them, too.
   Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki condemned the internet giants
   Tuesday. "The censorship of freedom of speech, the domain of
   totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, is returning today in the form
   of a new, commercial mechanism fighting against those who think
   differently," he wrote on Facebook.
   Poland's ruling populist Law and Justice Party (PiS) already has
   introduced legislation aimed at limiting the power of social media
   giants to remove content or ban users.
   The draft law was proposed after Twitter started flagging as misleading
   content tweets by Trump and supporters disputing the U.S. election
   result. PiS lawmakers say there shouldn't be any censorship by social
   media companies or curtailment of speech because debate is the essence
   of democracy.
   Opposition critics say the proposed measure sits oddly with the ruling
   party's efforts to muzzle the national media and to turn the public
   broadcaster into a propaganda vehicle. Those moves are currently being
   investigated by the European Union, which has accused the PiS
   government of rolling back democratic norms.
   The Polish government also has vowed to bring foreign-owned media
   outlets in the country under Polish control, which critics fear means
   turning them into government propaganda outlets.
   Under the draft law, if content is removed, a social media company
   would have 24 hours to respond to a complaint from a user and any
   decision could be appealed to a newly created special court.
   Populist leaders aren't alone in denouncing the moves by social media
   giants. Across Europe there is unease regardless of political
   affiliation at censorship by social media giants and their expulsion of
   Trump, a response to last week's bid to derail the certification of the
   U.S. election results by pro-Trump agitators storming the U.S. Capitol.
   Twitter cited violations of its civic integrity policies to block
   Trump.
   Facebook is blocking and deleting content that uses the phrase "stop
   the steal," which refers to false claims by Trump supporters of
   election fraud. And Twitter says it has suspended more than 70,000
   accounts of adherents of the QAnon conspiracy, who believe Trump is
   waging a secret war against elite Satan-worshipping pedophiles in
   government, business and the media.

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