Senate committees back shorter vacatio legis for Poland's DSA content-blocking law

Senate committees accept three amendments

On Tuesday, 13 October, the joint session of the Senate's infrastructure committee and its culture and media committee took up the Ministry of Digitization's amendment to the act on providing services by electronic means, which implements the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) in Poland. The Sejm passed the bill on Thursday, 8 October, and it allows illegal content online to be blocked. KO senator Halina Bieda presented three amendments that the government accepted, and every proposal won the committee members' approval. The full Senate will consider them at its plenary session, which opens on Wednesday, 14 October.

What the amendments change

The first amendment cuts the vacatio legis, the period before a law takes effect, from six months to three. The second widens the immediate-removal rule so that it also covers people who accept commissions for murder and announce it online, people who seek to drive another person to suicide, and people who make an unlawful threat. Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said both changes follow the direction that Zbigniew Bogucki, head of the President's Chancellery, described at the last Sejm plenary session. The remaining amendments, including one from the Legislative Bureau, were technical.

Speaking to reporters after the session, Gawkowski said:

We are extending a hand to the president, saying we want this law signed, because it is security for citizens.

He added that refusing to sign would make the president responsible for illegal content appearing online.

The veto and the censorship dispute

President Karol Nawrocki vetoed the first version of the bill in January, arguing that its provisions amounted to administrative censorship and a breach of freedom of speech. Gawkowski called that veto unjustified. Lukasz Warzecha, a columnist for Do Rzeczy, recalled that the president had compared the first version to the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell's 1984. Warzecha argued that the second version keeps the original mechanism, with the Customs Administration, police or prosecutors asking UKE or KRRiT to block content, and he called the court's role a facade.

Gawkowski said the bill does not restrict free speech:

These freedoms are being strengthened. A person online has the right to the same treatment as a person who lives in real life and wants their rights respected.

He said judicial oversight of any removal order is the key safeguard. Under the proposed catalogue, illegal content covers online fraud, identity theft, human trafficking, promotion of totalitarian systems, sale of counterfeits and illegal trade in goods. Content showing pornography to a minor, contacting a minor or promoting paedophilic behaviour would be blocked immediately.

Critics and the penal code

Adam Bielan of PiS said on the Sniadanie Rymanowskiego programme that there is 'absolutely no trust' that the government would not misuse the provisions. He said:

The law the prime minister is talking about is nothing other than an attempt to censor the internet.

Slawomir Mentzen, in a YouTube video, said the sole purpose of the law is to allow removal of content the government does not like. He pointed to articles 119, 256 and 257 of the penal code, which cover public insult of protected groups and promotion of fascism and other ideologies. He cited KO MP Katarzyna Kierzek-Koperska, who said that 'fascism is a verbal attack on another person', and warned that almost anyone could be labelled a fascist. Mentzen expects the president to veto the provisions again.

Platform takedowns and EU pressure

Dariusz Standerski, deputy digital minister, said that since the start of the year 6,233,838,000 illegal items have been blocked in EU countries that apply the DSA, and that 98 percent were removed by platforms on their own initiative, based on earlier decisions. Gawkowski said the ministry had responded in more than 100 cases in the last week where people promoted or praised content linked to attacks on schools. In half of those cases, platforms either did not react or removed the content two or three days later. Gawkowski also said the president of the European Commission had written that Poland is the last EU state not to implement the DSA. Senator Wojciech Skurkiewicz of PiS asked whether the bill needs notification to the Commission, and Gawkowski replied that the notification procedure has been launched and is ongoing. The DSA has applied in full in member states since 17 February 2024.