Some time ago Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of ruling Law and Justice Party and Poland's deputy prime minister, spoke at a virtual meeting organized by the right-wing newspaper Gazeta Polska. Railing against the so-called “LGBT ideology” as an imported Western idea out of sync with the views of most Poles, the right-wing leader stressed the importance of pushing back against the European Union to defend traditional values. “As long as we rule, nobody will impose anything on us” said Kaczynski. “All those who want to live in a normal world, in a world where a woman is a woman, a man is a man, and no one talks about a woman as a ‘person with a uterus’ — they should support our political coalition”. Kaczynski’s speech wasn’t broadcast on state television or a government-run website, but via a new social media platform called Albicla, which prides itself on not having any content moderation.
Kaczyński’s “white eagle”
The Albicla site looks and functions just like Facebook, and at the top of the video stream was the platform’s logo, a pink and green “A” with a white feather across it, along with the tagline “Let All Be Clear'' (Let AlBiCla – Let All Be Clear). The name is as obscure phrase to Poles as it is to the international reader, although Ryszard Kapuscinski [no relation to the famous journalist with the same name] from the Gazeta Polska team claims it is an amalgamation of the Latin phrase „albus aquila”, meaning “white eagle”, a Polish national symbol.
Why did the deputy prime minister and chief ideologist of the far-right in Poland prefer to appear on a mostly unknown platform instead of the public television? The answer is quite simple: the owner of Albicla is the media company called Słowo Niezależne (Independent Word), and the co-owner of the Słowo Niezależne is Srebrna, a firm controlled by Kaczyński himself.
The social media platform that promises a haven from "censorship" on mainstream social media platforms, was launched in January this year. The immediate trigger for its launch was the removal of Donald Trump's accounts by major social networks. Tomasz Sakiewicz, a pro-government journalist, Gazeta Polska editor and Albicla point person explained that Albicla was being worked on in a hurry to get it started before Trump left his post - "in the last hour of the rule of the leader of the free world."
When he faced a wave of criticism for the errors, underdevelopment and roughness of the portal, he refuted the accusations: “We have disturbed the powerful interests and made a breach in the wall of the ideological front that is pushing conservative thinking to the sidelines. It is now up to us to ensure this world continues to be free, particularly online. Let's create a free world together!".
Launched to great fanfare by the right-wing newspaper Gazeta Polska, Albicla promises to protect its users against the growing “censorship” of major social media companies like Facebook and Twitter. Within hours, tens of thousands of users — including several high-profile officials from Law and Justice (PiS) — had signed up. Despite some initial hiccups, many in Poland’s right-wing scene touted the platform as an important step in protecting what they see as often-silenced right-wing political discourse.
Hungarian beehive
In the wake of the storming of the U.S. Capitol in January and Donald Trump’s subsequent expulsion from popular social media platforms, far-right activists began moving to “free speech” platforms such as Parler and MeWe, seeing it as an alternative to mainstream media companies. That trend, it seems, was not limited to the U.S.: In Europe’s illiberal democracies, “anti-censorship” platforms are becoming increasingly popular as a means of countering the influence of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
With just over 73,000 users, the reach of Albicla is relatively limited, though it remains the best-known example in the region. A similar outlet, Hundub, has also been launched in Hungary, where the prime minister Viktor Orbán will face reelection in early 2022 and today he cannot be sure of winning. Hundub went online last December. The origins of the name – forged from the words “Hungarian” and “dub”, which also means “beehive” in ancient Hungarian – are less clear. At the beginning, Hundub was owned by Murmurati Ltd, an offshore company registered in Belize, but it pulled out in January and Hundub’s founder, Csaba Pal, announced it would be crowdfunded. The December 6th launch of Hundub received little attention until the government-loyal Magyar Nemzet began acclaiming it as a truly Hungarian and censorship-free alternative to Facebook, which, the paper argues, treats Hungarian government politicians unfairly. Prime Minister Viktor Orban was one of the first politicians to sign up to Hundub, but all political parties have rushed to register, starting with the liberal-centrist Momentum, the party most favoured by young people. Although Orbán and other politicians and activists signed up, and pro-government media has promoted the platform, it seems to be generating less buzz than its Polish counterpart.
Web developers in Hungary argue that the primary feature of the social network is that — unlike other social networks like Facebook and Twitter — there are no so-called "protected groups". Creators of the platform say that any user is free to say essentially anything they want about the government or the opposition, COVID-19, vaccines, or any minority or majority group. “We are Hungarian civilians who do not want to be public figures, but who do our best to build a Hungarian social network,” the developers behind the project said. The new social network does, however, prohibit the use of totalitarian symbols or incitement to commit a crime which falls under the Hungarian penal code. Furthermore, developers of the network ask users to refrain from sharing images or videos depicting extreme violence, nudity, or any kind of sexual act (In February, the media reported on a problem related to the dissemination of pictures with child pornography). Recent reports stated that more than 40,000 individuals have signed up to use Hundub, but in recent days, I was not able to get to the site - I was getting alerts about an unsafe connection (both platforms - Albicla and Hundub - have been criticized for software errors and deficiencies in data protection and security).
Hate speech, threats and false information
“Algorithms or the owners of corporate giants should not decide which views are right and which are not,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki wrote on Facebook shortly after Trump’s expulsion from the platform. “There can be no consent to censorship.” In Hungary, Justice Minister Judit Varga said these companies should be held accountable for “systematic abuses,” accusing Facebook and Twitter of routinely censoring or limiting visibility of “Christian, conservative, right-wing opinions” like hers.
Albicla came online just as top PiS officials released the latest draft of their “freedom of speech” legislation, which would fine social media companies up to 11 million EUR (50 million złoty) for regulating speech that isn’t illegal under Polish law. While this is theoretically not so different from European Union–wide debates over whether to more strictly regulate social media, there’s a catch: under the proposal, a Parliament-appointed Free Speech Council would make the final decision regarding each removal. It's easy to predict that independence of that Council would be very much in doubt.
All this comes in the midst of intensifying anti-LGBT rhetoric across Poland. Gazeta Polska is the media company that created the “LGBT-free zone” stickers back in 2019. Now Sakiewicz has a social media platform that in no way tries to stop hate speech, threats and spreading false information. LGBT activists worry about what might come out of an explicitly politicized platform like Albicla, especially since they already face hate campaigns against them on Twitter and on Facebook. As part of the fight for their rights, a few months ago LGBT activists and anti-PiS activists hacked the site’s logo via an official account page and swapped the "A" out for a rainbow, in a nod to the LGBT movement.
Rapper priest
The idea of a PiS-aligned social media platform is another step toward the government’s goal of centralizing and controlling sources of information across the country. In addition to transforming the state television broadcaster into a mouthpiece for government propaganda, PiS has sought to “repolonize” the media landscape — preventing foreign (especially German) ownership of media companies that report on Poland. Lately, the state-run oil refiner PKN Orlen bought Polska Press, a large network of local and regional newspapers and websites, from the German firm Verlagsgruppe Passau. A government-aligned company is currently replacing the heads of editorial offices and journalists in 20 out of 24 biggest regional newspapers across Poland, and in hundreds of smaller papers and websites. What will they write about under the rule of the state-owned company? Just look at Albicla's public landing page and you will see the story of a priest who converts young people by raping and about the billions of Zloty that the Polish government wrestled from the greedy EU and will give them to Poles. Those posts are mixed in with weather reports, sport results, updates from regional PiS officials and video clips from the ultraconservative Ordo Iuris.
Although it pitches itself as an anti-censorship platform, Albicla's regulations contain provisions that allow the administrator to delete entries and even block profiles if they believe that the user is misusing the website or engaging in "harmful activities in relation to other people''. And so the platform cancelled the accounts of critical journalists, though it has since restored them.
Danger, danger!
Since its launch, Albicla has been plagued by various mishaps, including data security concerns, which, ironically, led to the censoring of certain posts. Shortly after launch, some users reported being able to access user information for thousands of accounts; the platform initially had weak password requirements and no two-step verification options. Parts of its terms and conditions had been directly copy-pasted from Facebook’s. Experts doubt these platforms will ever evolve from small, fairly fringe sites to ones with real clout, especially since attempts to challenge Facebook and Twitter have been rare and largely unsuccessful. (In Poland Facebook has more than 21 million users). Still, in Albicla’s case, given the powerful publisher behind it and its public boost from government officials like Kaczyński, critics say there is reason to be concerned. It’s tempting to simply write off the site, but given the climate of anti-LGBT hate speech in Poland, even a small right-wing platform that incubates such views can be dangerous.
