Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga took to Facebook earlier today to announce that she will be consulting with the Hungarian Competition Authority about sanctioning social media firms that engage in ‘unfair commercial practices’. She named Facebook as a firm that tries to reduce the reach of Christian, conservative, and right-wing opinions and that she has personal experience of her posts being "shadow banned".
Her announcement to go after social media firms comes just days after the Polish government said it was looking to introduce a free speech social media law that would create a free speech council that could issue fines to social media firms if they delete content or ban users who do not break Polish laws.
Aside from meeting with the Hungarian Competition Authority, Varga also convened a meeting of the country’s Digital Freedom Committee to look into the issue. She said that the committee also works at the EU level to help regulate global tech companies. Both Hungary and Poland have said that this issue must be tackled by the EU but are working for national solutions in the meantime.
It’s unclear how much support other EU countries would provide to such proposals but German Chancellor Angela Merkel previously stated that Donald Trump’s ban from Twitter was problematic so Poland and Hungary may find some support there.
Source: Judit Varga (Facebook) via Reuters
37 Comments - Add comment