Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga discussed the prospect of sanctioning social media firms over unfair commercial practices.

The minister said she would meet the Hungarian competition watchdog this week to discuss possible penalties for what she described as abuses against freedom of speech. She also plans to convene a meeting of the country’s digital freedom committee.

In a growing wave of criticism, some government officials are complaining about what they have described as efforts by social media companies, including Facebook, to limit conservative views on their platforms.

 “‘Shadowban’ means the act of social media providers secretly, for political purposes, restricting the visibility and access of our user profile without our knowledge about it,” Varga said in a Facebook post.

“To reduce their reach, Facebook also limits the visibility of Christian, conservative, right-wing opinions. I also have personal experience of that,” Varga said without elaborating.

Varga has nearly 120,000 Facebook followers, while Prime Minister  Orban has over 1 million, representing more than 10% of the Hungarian population. The prime minister frequently uses Facebook to announce government decisions about COVID-19 or economic policy.

Varga said in her post the matter should be regulated at European Union level, but said swifter action may be needed: “Due to the systematic abuses, however, we may need to step up sooner,” she said.

Her comments come days after ally Poland also flagged possible action against big tech companies, with the justice minister saying companies that remove posts they deem offensive could face fines.

Orban’s Polish ally, the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, which has a conservative Catholic social agenda, argues that big tech companies exercise a dangerous level of control over public debate, censoring opinions out of line with their own liberal world view.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban has turned Hungary’s public media into an obedient mouthpiece and allies control large parts of the private media, allowing his agenda to be aired prominently.

Source- Reuters

Country- Hungary