Polish president vetoes DSA law that would block illegal content

The DSA itself is an EU regulation and has applied in all member states since 17 February 2024. But each country decides how to enforce it at home, and that is where the Polish fight is.

Why Nawrocki says no

The president says the DSA is not the problem. The Polish way of implementing it is. In his view, handing officials the power to decide what counts as forbidden content opens the door to abuse and creates a real risk of censorship.

"The spectre of the censor-official has returned, someone who will decide what is and is not allowed on the internet," he said. "An official's role is not to pass judgment on whether content was a crime. That is solely the job of the justice system."

Deputy Prime Minister and Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski sees it differently. He said the veto does not just throw the rules in the bin but gives a green light to hate and hatred, and to the death that the internet can also bring. The president, he added, takes personal responsibility for all of it.

So the two sides disagree on one point: who should be able to order a block, an administrative body or a court. For now, the bill is stopped, and Poland still has no domestic mechanism of the kind it described.