Implementation of the Digital Services Act

In a speech beginning a civilian proceeding at the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, Deputy Minister of Digitization Dariusz Standerski presented the main assumptions of the draft amendment of the Electronic Services Act, which is to implement the Digital Services Act (DSA) into Polish law.

The task implementing DSA is besides expected to introduce on a broader scale alleged "trusty operators" signaling and amicable methods of resolving content disputes on the network. However, the most controversial is the procedure for combating illegal content. There are proposals to grant the position of the website to the user whose content has been removed in this proceeding. However, this may prove difficult, especially given that many specified users are real bots. Therefore, the latest concept assumes that specified a user will be informed that a proceeding is being conducted about its content, and will be able to study his participation, but it will not be mandatory.

Many problems arise from the fact that most harmful content on the net has negative effects in the first hours after publication, which does not adhere to classical terms known to administrative proceedings (14, 30 or even 60 days). In turn, the immediate enforceability of the deletion decision proposed in erstwhile versions of the task would only be limited to "especially gross cases", which must besides be duly defined. Finally, it is being considered that the basis for the removal of specified content may be enumeratively indicated prohibited acts, but not, for example, a violation of individual property or copyright.

Dorota Głowacka of the Panoptykon Foundation pointed out in turn that DSA is an chance to rebuild the net so that it becomes a more human-friendly space and little dependent on large corporations. However, it should not be allowed that their discretion should be replaced by the discretion of the State authorities. Therefore, the proposals of the Ministry of Digital Affairs are a step in the right direction. However, it is crucial to supply for the anticipation of recourse to a common court, not to an administrative court, as well as – so that the author can be heard before deciding on the content. In turn, Cezary Węgliński of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights pointed out that leaving the violation of individual property as a basis for the removal of content would open up another anticipation of abuse of these rules against local journalists or activists criticizing, for example, the actions of the local mayor.

Institutions representing creators and broadcasters pointed out that the DSA must besides let effective fight against piracy and theft of content. Finally, organisations focused on combating disinformation and transparency of electoral processes indicated that the Implementation Act should grant fresh competence not only to the president of the UKE or the UOKiK, but besides to the State Election Commission and the National Election Office.

Representatives of chambers of commerce or employers' organisations and telecommunications operators besides spoke. They pointed out that the content removal procedure provided for in the Act should apply to hosting service providers, as only they can block access to circumstantial content. In turn, net providers are able to block full pages or servers at most, which can lead to the phenomenon of overblocking, i.e. excessive content blocking (legal with illegal).

However, if the blockade is to take place at the level of telecommunications companies, it should be a model for a functioning gambling site register.