A Polish court held a first hearing Wednesday in a case brought against Facebook by a historian who claims the tech giant engaged in “censorship” by suspending accounts that had posted about a nationalist rally in Warsaw.
The case comes as major tech firms such as Facebook and Twitter have been introducing new measures for stamping out extremist content and closing down misinformation on the internet as a result of growing pressure from governments pushing for action.
Historian Maciej Swirski had complained that Facebook in 2016 suspended a couple of accounts that provided information on an independence day march organised by far-right groups.
“I’m not a member of the National Movement, but as a citizen, I wanted to inform myself on the event in question and I was blocked from doing so,” Swirski tells AFP.
“This censorship doesn’t concern my own posts, but rather content that I had wanted to see.”
The historian is also the president of the anti-defamation organisation Reduta Dobrego Imienia, which strives to defend Poland’s image, especially in the context of World War II.
