Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga said Monday that Hungary is considering sanctions against big tech firms over alleged "systemic abuses" of free speech.
Hungary’s Justice minister Judit Varga has called an extraordinary meeting of the Digital Freedom Committee tasked with monitoring online space over what she says are violations of democratic norms by tech giants.
In an English-language post on Facebook on Monday, Judit Varga said tech firms were violating “all those fundamental democratic legal norms that form the basis of Western-type culture” by secretly restricting the visibility of, or “shadow banning” certain users “for political purposes”.
The minister cited a recently leaked recording of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in which he is heard telling staff members that the company’s policy enforcement actions would go “far beyond” the suspension of US President Donald Trump’s account. She also accused Facebook of limiting “the visibility of Christian, conservative, right-wing opinions”, adding that she had “personal experience” of such practices.
After her Monday post discussing social media role’s in politics and future elections, Justice Minister Judit Varga on Wednesday claimed that the social media giant changed the algorithms, resulting in a steep drop in her page’s followers. In response to the Justice Minister’s accusation, Facebook insists it didn’t manipulate Varga’s site’s algorithms.
In her Monday post, she discussed that social media activity could play a key role in the 2022 elections, as politicians reach direct, significant numbers of voters directly through online platforms.” She also noted that “although the Conservative side has made a lot of progress in this area,” there would be a lot more for them to do.