The United States Congress expresses concern regarding the actions of Donald Tusk’s government and their implications for freedom of speech

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On 13 May 2025, James Daniel Jordan, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the United States House of Representatives, together with four other members of the Committee, addressed a letter to Michael McGrath, European Commissioner for democracy, justice and the rule of law. The letter inquires how the European Union intends to respond to the actions of Donald Tusk’s government. As grounds for their interest in this matter, the congressmen pointed to the potential negative impact that the Polish government’s actions could have on standards of freedom of speech, including on a global scale (due to the use by large platforms of a single, regionally undifferentiated standard for assessing content in this area), which could then directly affect US citizens. A specific example of such action was the request that the Scientific and Academic Computer Network – National Research Institute was to submit to TikTok in November last year to remove a video critical of the idea of promoting electric cars. The reason given for the removal was that the video suggested that electric cars are not a viable solution from either an economic or an environmental point of view.

What is particularly important is that the request also pointed to a number of actions by the current government that constitute violations of the rule of law, which have already been described many times on our website, such as the inhumane treatment of father Michał Olszewski during his arrest, the possible contribution to the death of Kaczyński's former secretary Barbara Skrzypek in connection with the failure to guarantee her rights during a politically motivated interrogation, as reported in the media, and finally, the attempt to deprive Telewizja Republika of its licence to broadcast nationwide. This use of the law as a weapon in political struggle, serving to persecute the opposition, was compared by the congressmen to the actions of the administration of the previous US President, Joseph Biden.

The entire text is available on the Rule of Law Observer website – LINK