Poland criminalizes patostreaming with prison sentences of up to five years

New criminal penalties for online abuse

On Sunday, 23 August 2026, amendments to the Polish Penal Code criminalizing patostreaming entered into force. The legislation, passed with the backing of 95% of deputies in the Sejm, establishes direct penal liability for broadcasting and disseminating socially harmful, illegal, vulgar, or obscene content online. Penalties range from up to three years in prison for standard offenses to a maximum of five years when broadcasts involve children or serious harms.

The provisions also extend criminal liability beyond primary creators to third parties who repost abusive broadcasts or repurpose them into short video clips and reels across social platforms.

Scope and statutory definitions

Codified under Article 255b of the Penal Code, the law prohibits the public dissemination of material depicting crimes against personal rights, violence against animals, or the humiliating treatment of another person for financial or personal gain. The statute explicitly removes participant consent as a legal defense. Creators cannot avoid prosecution by claiming that participants voluntarily agreed to undergo degradation or hazardous challenges for viewer engagement and monetary tips. While private unconventional conduct remains legal, recording and distributing degrading acts online forms the basis of the offense under Article 255b § 1 item 3.

The legislation also eliminates defenses based on staging or digital manipulation. Under Article 255b § 2, simulated conduct and realistic digitally generated content face identical criminal penalties if the material is capable of creating an objective conviction among average viewers that authentic violence or abuse took place. The standard evaluates the objective realism of the material rather than whether an individual viewer was deceived.

Platform obligations and European standards

Specialists at Dyżurnet.pl, a contact point for reporting illegal online material operating within the NASK research institute, noted that penalizing creators addresses only part of the issue. Arkadiusz Michałowski of Dyżurnet.pl explained that social media platforms rarely remove illicit content on their own initiative, acting primarily after receiving external notifications.

Only practice will show whether the new regulations translate into a reduction in the amount of harmful content on the internet. It certainly takes time. What could work immediately would be a decisive and prompt reaction from the internet platforms where such content appears.

To establish formal obligations for digital hosts, the Ministry of Digital Affairs prepared two draft amendments to the Act on the Provision of Electronic Services. These bills aim to introduce procedures for issuing rapid access-restriction orders against unlawful content while safeguarding user rights. One draft remains under review in the Sejm, while the Senate adopted amendments to the second bill prior to the parliamentary recess.

The pending digital service bills address the regulatory gap created by a January presidential veto. President Karol Nawrocki vetoed an earlier version of the electronic services act, preventing the domestic transposition of the European Union Digital Services Act, which took effect across member states more than two years ago. Because of the delay in implementing the European framework, Poland faces potential financial sanctions from the Court of Justice of the European Union.