WARSAW, Oct 16 (Reuters) – Poland summoned internet companies including Google and Meta to the Digital Affairs Ministry on Friday, demanding they do more to curb the spread of violent content following a series of school stabbing attacks.
Thousands of police were sent to schools this week to ensure security after a series of three attacks in four days triggered a wave of online threats that left pupils and teachers fearing for their safety.
Warsaw says the glorification of violence in corners of the internet, for example in groups devoted to Nazi ideology or idolising serial killers, is having a damaging effect on children and has urged social media firms to do more to prevent content that encourages or threatens violence.
“It is the expectation of every Polish citizen that … no one should incite others to commit suicide, that there should be no content endorsing or encouraging criminal threats, and that users should not be exposed to situations like acts of murder, physical harm, or mutilation,” Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski told a press conference.
Gawkowski said that between October 7 and October 12 Poland flagged 89 cases of illegal content related to the attacks to internet companies, and in two-thirds of cases they failed to take any action.
The meeting was attended by representatives of Google, Meta, TikTok, Discord and Telegram. Elon Musk’s X was invited but did not attend, Gawkowski said.
The companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The government is fast-tracking legislation to make it easier and quicker to remove damaging content.
The latest stabbing occurred on Saturday, when three people were injured at a further education college in Warsaw. It followed an attack on October 8 in Leszczydol-Nowiny, northeast of the capital, where a 15-year-old former pupil wearing a helmet-mounted camera killed a school caretaker and wounded two teachers.
A day earlier, a 19-year-old injured 10 people, including himself, at a school in Ostroleka.
(Reporting by Anna Koper, writing by Alan Charlish, Editing by Louise Heavens)
