Polish parliament approves bill banning streaming of illegal, abusive and degrading acts

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Poland’s parliament has voted almost unanimously in favour of a proposed law banning online content depicting illegal acts or other forms of abusive and degrading behaviour. Only the far-right voted against the bill, warning that it would result in “censorship”.

The legislation is intended to clamp down on what is known in Poland as patostreaming (a portmanteau of “pathological” and “streaming”), meaning livestreams in which hosts engage in shocking – and often dangerous and illegal – behaviour.

The growth of such content, sometimes referred to as “trashstreaming” in English, has drawn increasing concern in Poland over the last decade, in particular over the impact it can have on young people.

A previous bill proposing to ban it was submitted in 2023 but failed to be approved before parliamentary elections later that year, after which the previous legislative agenda was wiped.

A vote today on a new bill saw rare agreement between MPs from Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s ruling coalition, which ranges from left to centre right, and the main national-conservative opposition party, Law and Justice (PiS). The two sides are normally bitterly opposed.

The only two groups to vote against the bill were the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) and Confederation of the Polish Crown (KKP). As a result, the legislation passed with 419 votes in favour and only 19 against in the Sejm, the more powerful lower house of parliament.

“This is a major success for Polish democracy,” declared PiS MP and former deputy justice minister Michał Wójcik. “I would like to thank everyone who contributed to the creation of a tool to combat those who destroy the lives of children, vulnerable people, the homeless and animals.”

Confederation MP Michał Nieznański said that, while his group is concerned at the impact patostreaming can have on young people, the bill “goes too far” and “will entail significant censorship”. He argued that it is possible to fight such behaviour with existing legal tools.

The legislation now passes to the upper-house Senate, which can briefly delay it and suggest amendments, but not block its passage. Once approved by parliament, President Karol Nawrocki, who is aligned with the right-wing opposition, can either sign it into law, veto it, or send it to the constitutional court for assessment.

Nawrocki is an opponent of the government and has wielded his veto power unprecedently often. However, digital affairs minister Krzysztof Gawkowski told Polsat News that he had received positive signals from the presidential palace regarding the bill and did not expect a veto.

The bill would make it a crime to publicly disseminate content depicting the commission of a prohibited act that is punishable by imprisonment, an act involving animal abuse, or degrading treatment of another person, even with their consent.

Those found guilty of doing so could be jailed for up to three years, rising to five years if the prohibited act is against a minor. Those who simulate commissioning a prohibited act, even if they do not actually carry it out, would also be punished.

A 2019 report by the Empowering Children Foundation (Fundacja Dajemy Dzieciom Siłę) in collaboration with Poland’s commissioner for human rights found that 37% of children aged 13 to 15 admitted to having watched “pato-content” online, with 43% of those saying they did so at least once a week.

However, a large majority of those teenagers, 82%, said that they believed such content should be banned.

A 2023 report by NASK, a state research agency that focuses on online threats, found that one in four teenagers watch patostreams and that, in most cases, their parents were unaware of this.

Poland’s government has recently stepped up efforts to protect young people from online threats. In January, it announced plans to introduce tools that would block children from access to social media, similar to a move Australia recently made. However, those measures have not yet been finalised.

Earlier this month, the government approved a separate package of bills aimed at strengthening protections for children against digital threats, including a ban on the use of mobile phones in primary schools and stricter age-verification requirements for access to online pornography.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.