Poland says social media firms are 'silent ally' of Russia, threatens fines
WARSAW, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Social media platforms are a "silent ally" of Russia in a "digital war" and are doing nothing to curb disinformation, Polish Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said on Wednesday, threatening fines for firms that ignore state requests.
Poland and other Western countries have on many occasions accused Russia of spreading disinformation to sow division and destabilise their societies. Moscow denies such accusations and says Western leaders are intentionally exaggerating the threat from Russia for their own political ends.
Data from Poland's NASK National Research Institute showed platforms acted on fewer than a quarter of the more than 65,000 reports of fake accounts and disinformation it sent them in the first half of 2026.
Discord, Google, Meta, X, Telegram and TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
"A digital war with Russia is underway, and within this digital war lies a front of disinformation. On this disinformation front, there is a silent ally to the Russian bots and the Kremlin's GRU: social media platforms," Gawkowski said.
"Social media platforms are doing nothing about this," he added during a press conference.
Poland's NASK data showed that, of all cases of disinformation and fake accounts reported, social media platforms deleted 7% and moderated over 17%.
"The data points not merely to a failure, but to deliberate action by the platforms — which profit from disinformation, use it, and treat it as a source of their revenue," Gawkowski said.
He added that he issued a demand to the platforms to establish effective Polish-speaking content moderation teams, which would maintain a direct, real-time link to the relevant entities reporting such content.
He also demanded the elimination of what he called sham appeals processes, the immediate removal of any identified bot networks and a reduction in response times for all such reports.
"Furthermore, I have made it clear that any state request left unfulfilled by these platforms will trigger proceedings to impose financial penalties upon them," Gawkowski also said.
(Reporting by Anna Koper; Additional reporting by Alicja Surdy and Alan Charlish; Editing by Xevi Fontdegloria)
