The National
Broadcasting Council

The National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT) stressed that drafting laws implementing the DSA must take place with full respect for the constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and the right to information. The Council pointed out that it is essential to maintain a balance between protecting internet users and ensuring that new provisions – under the guise of combating illegal content – do not lead to arbitrary administrative decisions.

The KRRiT's reservations about the government's draft laws also concern the risk of administrative blocking of content without a prior court ruling, the transfer of quasi-judicial tasks to regulatory bodies, and the imposition of new obligations without adequate financial and staffing support.

‘Implementing the DSA must strengthen the safety of users, but it must not lead to the creation of mechanisms that restrict public debate or blur institutional accountability. The assessment of the unlawfulness of content should be carried out by independent courts, and effective oversight of the digital market requires a single, strong regulator equipped with real tools and resources’, stressed the KRRiT Chair.

The Council's most serious reservations relate to the procedure, introduced in both drafts, for issuing orders to block online content by state administrative bodies, including the KRRiT Chair. It is proposed that these bodies would be able to decide cases requiring an assessment of whether particular content meets the criteria of a prohibited act. However, no account has been taken of the fact that such a decision may require thorough evidentiary proceedings, which are the domain of the ordinary courts, not an administrative body.

The draft law under consultation, in practice, makes the KRRiT Chair and the President of the Office of Electronic Communications (UKE) bodies competent to resolve matters of a criminal nature, causing a mixing-up of the competences and organisation of state bodies. Importantly, the draft's provisions effectively transfer tasks of a criminal-law nature to regulators. The Council stresses that matters concerning the unlawfulness of content, particularly in the context of criminal law, should be resolved through an expedited judicial procedure, which ensures a higher standard of protection for freedom of speech and greater stability of the system.

With regard to the draft law (UC140), which regulates the organisation of the oversight system for digital services, the KRRiT stresses that the proposed solutions significantly expand the scope of the regulator's tasks. This scope includes, among other things, conducting proceedings, carrying out inspections, imposing penalties, and cooperating with national and EU institutions. However, the draft does not provide for the additional financial, staffing or technical resources necessary to carry out these obligations. In the Council's assessment, this is at odds with the requirements of the DSA, which oblige member states to provide their authorities with adequate resources in this regard.

The KRRiT also points to the need to adopt a coherent model for overseeing online content. The Council's experience in the field of user protection argues in favour of the KRRiT Chair being the competent body not only for video-sharing platforms, but also for other online platforms used for publishing and exchanging content (excluding areas such as personal-data protection or consumer practices).

‘The National Broadcasting Council's track record, knowledge and experience in the field of user protection are of key importance in ensuring safe, open and pluralistic public debate online, access to information, freedom of expression, and the right to freely form opinions in the environment of online platforms’, noted the KRRiT Chair, Dr Agnieszka Glapiak.

The National Broadcasting Council has declared its readiness to work with the Ministry of Digital Affairs to develop the best and most effective legal solutions for implementing the DSA.