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Poland’s Freedom Law to block shadow bans

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(Photo: V4 Agency)

By: V4 Agency

Poland’s new “Freedom Law” is to override any restrictions that social media platforms can impose on users. The new legislation aims to regulate the process of using algorithms to prevent that particular views or lawful activities are suppressed. The law is also designed to eliminate invisible restrictions and so-called shadow bans.

“Every time an algorithm is used to limit reach, the user will be informed if and why his reach is being limited,” Deputy Justice Minister Sebastian Kaleta said in a recent interview.

Poland’s “freedom act”  will put an end to the censorship of social media platforms by putting regulations in place that would disallow service providers to remove lawful content. It also guarantees the right of Polish citizens to appeal against deletions of content if the banned content is otherwise lawful.

Mr Kaleta also told Breitbart that in some cases, social networking sites impose invisible restrictions, called “shadow bans” on users or their content. In essence, such restrictions neither block users, nor delete their content, but the platform’s algorithm makes it difficult to access their account, without the users even knowing.

“The process of using algorithms to suppress particular views, as long as they do not break Polish law, [will] be regulated” Mr Kaleta said, adding that “if social media platforms break this law, they will be fined.”

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