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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 Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) has launched an investigation into Meta, the owner of Facebook, for its recent decision to limit the visibility of posts linking to Polish media. If UOKiK establishes that Meta abused its market position, it can fine the firm up to 10% of its annual turnover.
Facebook last month changed the way that links to Polish media appear. Now they contain only the title of the article in question, without the image and text summary that was previously also visible.
The social media giant said it did so because of legal doubts over a new Polish copyright law. However, Polish publishers accused Meta of “exploiting its dominant position” to “punish” them for changes to the copyright law intended to help media outlets negotiate with social media firms.
Meta – The President of #UOKiK has launched a preliminary investigation. 🔎
The content of Polish publishers has recently been displayed as a single link rather than a graphical preview of the material. 📰
This change may have led to decreased interest in journalistic content. 📉 pic.twitter.com/oC0k7IGr9h— UOKiK (@UOKiKgovPL) October 22, 2024
On Tuesday this week, UOKiK announced that it was launching explanatory proceedings into Facebook’s actions.
“From the perspective of the media publishers, Facebook is an important distribution channel,” said UOKiK’s president, Tomasz Chróstny, explaining his decision to take action. “Many users look for current news from Poland and the region on the platform.”
Therefore, “Meta’s actions may have had a significant impact on the decline in reader engagement and a negative impact on the number of press material views”.
“According to antitrust law, businesses with a dominant position in a given market cannot use it to the detriment of other entities, for example by creating onerous contract terms for them,” notes UOKIK. “The initiated actions are intended to check whether the practices of Meta may be prohibited.”
Facebook has limited the visibility of links to Polish media by removing images from such posts.
It says this is due to legal doubts over a new copyright law in Poland. But Polish publishers say the social media giant is "exploiting its dominant position" https://t.co/E1nwncpAyl
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) September 23, 2024
Poland’s new copyright law was intended to implement a European directive. However, its initial form led to protests by media outlets, who claimed the law would favour tech giants, such as Google and Facebook, who use their content.
That led parliament to introduce changes to law before it passed, in particular a mechanism that would that would allow media firms to seek help from a state agency when negotiating with tech firms over payments for their content.
However, last month Meta claimed that Poland’s new law is “not consistent with the scope or terms” of the EU copyright directive and has “created a lack of clarity”.
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.
Main image credit: Pixabay / Pexels
Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.
