Polish Ministry backs down over prohibited domains register

The Polish Ministry of Digitization has been forced to issue a public statement dismissing reports that it was  planning to create a centralised register of prohibited online domains.

Widespread reports in the Polish press claimed that the ministry, in concert with other departments, was planning to institute a centralised database of prohibited domains which was broadly similar to the online gambling blacklist currently being used by the ministry of finance to block unlicensed online gambling sites.

The so-called “central register of Internet domains used to offer goods and services contrary to the law” would have been available to all ministries, who could add domains to this list as they saw fit.

Responding to the public criticism, the Ministry of Digitization said there would “be no central register of prohibited domains” adding that “The proposal to create it was a response to the postulates of telecommunications entrepreneurs”.

“Due to the fact that there were proposals that, apart from illegal gambling websites, also be blocking parties that deal with prohibited means, such as legal highs, the ministry proposed a technical solution in case these proposals were accepted.”

Earlier this month, Polish non-profit organisation Panoptykon Foundation which “fights for freedom and respect for human rights in the network” asserted that the creation of such a register would open the possibility of surveillance of users, potentially restricting their freedom of speech.

In an interview with local news site Polsat News, Karolina Iwańska, a lawyer working for the Panoptykon Foundation said: “In practice, officials will gain access to the entire operator interface and all information about Internet users who, even out of curiosity, tried to check whether their access to sites in the registry is blocked.”

Dismissing these reports, the Ministry confirmed that its “intention has never been to restrict the freedom of the Internet. Any suggestions that the creation of a register would serve any form of Internet censorship were, therefore, far-reaching overinterpretation and abuse.

“Finally, after the analysis, as well as due to the fact that proposals for possible blocking of some parties were not accepted, the Ministry of Digitization withdraws from the proposal to create a register.”