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Need to enforce the Digital Services Act to protect democracy on social media platforms including against foreign interference and biased algorithms (debate)
The Digital Services Act (DSA) was created to curb the spread of illegal content online and to strengthen users' rights online rather than restricting their expression. The DSA is not meant to be a censorship tool, but to protect fundamental rights, including the possibility of free debate. Unfortunately, we are seeing attempts to instrumentally use the DSA to suppress uncomfortable views. We need to protect freedom of speech, which does not end where mainstream views cease to dominate. Democracy is not when everyone thinks and says what the mainstream is spreading, but when everyone has the right to their own different views and to express them online. In Poland, the law implementing the DSA, which opens the way for preventive censorship, is particularly worrying. Some of the provisions of the Act are directly contrary to the requirement to respect the Charter of Fundamental Rights, to which the DSA expressly refers. It assumes blocking content without the participation of a court and on the basis of unclear criteria - a dangerous tool that can be used to eliminate critical voices, political opposition and suppress public debate. ‘No’ to censorship and ‘Yes’ to freedom of expression!