“Our algorithm will suck you in”, “Scroll more, sleep less”. These are slogans from a “new, revolutionary social platform” Vlop!, being advertised on a mysterious, Black Mirror-like LED truck, cruising the Polish capital city. In reality, the platform does not exist, and was made up as part of a social campaign highlighting the actual harmful effects of BigTech companies that operate today.

The Senate of Poland concluded its investigation on the use of Pegasus by Polish secret services to spy on ia. opposition politicians and unapologetic public persons. They declared that Pegasus should be considered illegal in Poland and the secret services should be put under strict and independent scrutiny. Doubts also arose around the fairness of Poland's 2019 elections.

The first court hearing in the case between a Polish NGO and Meta took place before the Warsaw District Court on 7 February 2023. The hearing was conducted almost four years after the organisation sued the internet giant for deleting its accounts and groups  without a prior warning or an explanation.

Following Panoptykon’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) complaint against one of the biggest Polish news website, Interia.pl – the Polish Data Protection Authority has confirmed that online publishers should give users access to their advertising profiles generated for the purposes of delivering behavioural ads.

Do Polish political parties microtarget voters? What is the role of Facebook? How to regulate (political) advertising? Read our new report — Who (really) targets you? Facebook in Polish election campaigns.