“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.

We enter the final stage of the negotiations of the AI Act – the first comprehensive law regulating the development and implementation of artificial intelligence. The lack of transparency of the trilogue and intense corporate are reasons to worry. But fortunately – thanks to the efforts of civil society – there are also reasons for optimism. Will the AI Act eventually promote and protect fundamental rights and freedoms?

We found an essential mistake in the Polish official translation of the Article 27 of Digital Services Act:

As the European Parliament gets ready to vote on the AI Act, we call on MEPs to put our fundamental rights first and protect the people affected by AI systems.

Winter 2022/2023 seems to be a spectacular time in the history of Artificial Intelligence. It is so even though the current hype is an effect of mass popularization rather than a real scientific revolution, which in this field began quite a while ago. With the rapid growth of new users of products based on generative AI (or GP AI), its potential to wreak havoc raises an increasing number of serious concerns.

Data retention obligation will not be further extended in Polish law on electronic communication. However, the current, unlawful scope of telecommunication data retention remains unchanged. Our advocacy effort proved successful.

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.

New privacy policy of Panoptykon Foundation

On 27 September the hearing was held at the European Court of Human Rights, following the application against Poland lodged by activists from Poland’s Panoptykon Foundation and Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, joined by a human rights attorney. The group alleges that the state violated their right to privacy by allowing the intelligence agencies to act beyond scrutiny. Their case has been supported by the United Nations special rapporteur, Polish Ombudsman and the European Criminal Bar Association, attending the Strasbourg hearing as well.