The dialogue with state and market actors to ensure that the right of Hungarian citizens to freedom of expression on social media dominated by international tech giants is guaranteed continued, Justice Minister Judit Varga told the Hungarian news agency MTI after the meeting of the Committee for Digital Freedom held on Monday.

After the Monday meeting of the committee, Ms. Varga stated “The platform set up by the Ministry of Justice has been working hard since February to guarantee citizens’ legal security and freedom in digital media”.

The enormous economic weight of tech giants, their non-transparent operations and at times questionable taxation practices feature on the agenda of governments worldwide as important issues with regard to the fact that national legislators and law enforcers owe responsibility for the legal security of their citizens, Ms. Varga stressed.

The feedback received from members of the public, too, shows that transparency and accountability as fundamental democratic values are the most important issues at present in  online media, the Minister said. Putting it another way, many people are wondering based on what legal rules and what rule of law guarantees Facebook, for one, censors Hungarian citizens.

The Justice Minister added that in August they repeatedly contacted the regional director of Facebook with respect to the issues of transparency and ideological neutrality, and they are still waiting for specific answers as they would only like to see the same rule of law guarantees in online media that are expected from a state maintaining the rule of law in the offline world.

(Ministry of Justice/MTI)