Hungary Will Legislate Against Tech Censorship

The Hungarian government has confirmed that it will legislate against Big Tech censorship online, declaring that “we must fight for our digital freedom!”

Judit Varga, the Minister of Justice in Prime Minister Viktor Orbán national conservative government, lamented the fact that “today, anyone can be arbitrarily disconnected from online space without any kind of official, transparent or fair procedure, or the opportunity for redress.”

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The Hungarian politician appears to be following the lead of Poland’s deputy minister of justice, Sebastian Kaleta, who is spearheading a new draft law dubbed the “Freedom Act” which will empower an independent body to hear appeals from social media users who have been banned or had their content removed from Big Tech platforms. That body — the Free Speech Board — will have the power to order such removals reversed if the speech users were censored for was lawful, and to impose heavy fines on tech firms which do not comply.

“Digital damage inflicted deliberately out of political or ideological interests can also not occur without repercussions in Hungary anymore!” wrote Minister Varga.

“Freedom is rarely given as a gift. We must now also fight for our digital freedom! Go Hungary!”

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The Polish government has said it began to grow seriously concerned when it observed Christian pages being censored on Facebook, while Minister Varga has previously claimed that she herself has been “shadowbanned” on the Zuckerberg platform, and the official About Hungary account on Twitter was deleted without explanation before government complaints secured its restoration.

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