Key facts
- Poland flagged 89 cases of illegal content related to attacks to internet companies between Oct. 7 and Oct. 12.
- Two-thirds of flagged content went unaddressed by internet companies.
- Google, Meta, TikTok, Discord, and Telegram attended the meeting; X did not.
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 after three attacks in four days triggered a wave of online threats. Warsaw says the glorification of violence online is damaging children and has urged social media firms to prevent content that encourages or threatens violence. Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski stated 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 action. The meeting was attended by representatives of Google, Meta, TikTok, Discord, and Telegram; Elon Musk's X was invited but did not attend. The government is fast-tracking legislation to make it quicker to remove damaging content. The latest stabbing occurred on Saturday, when three people were injured at a further education college in Warsaw.