Intro

0:15

Today, we've got something, a little different for you guys. Um, I am doing another interview, but this is not a podcasting 2.0 or even a Bitcoin interview. This is actually an interview with, uh, somebody who's in Poland. Hence, you're going to hear a translator, try and slating, uh, what he has to say, but let me introduce Marek Jarocki and, uh, let him sort of give us some background on who he is and why he's interesting. And I'll just give you a quick hint. He has successfully sued Facebook. So with that in mind, uh, let's find out a little bit more. You actually meshed Monik. So we'll talk a little bit more about the specific. Civic Facebook situation, but give us a little more background Marik as to what you're doing. Like, I understand that you have this theoretical Facebook page. Is that just something you were doing for fun or are you a comedian? I have you have you done professional comedy? What's your background? I see. Okay. And then, so do you just, uh, use Facebook or you had a Facebook group that you'd set up or sharing? Uh, funny or satirical messages or are you sharing memes like images? Um, tell me a little more about what sort of posts you were putting on the Facebook. Okay. So it sounds like there were people that dislike the page that may be worked for the Polish government.

Nature of Lawsuite

7:29

Uh, and then what happened? Did they reach out to Facebook and then tell Facebook? To do what, how long ago was that? What was the timeline on this?

Satirical Facebook Group

11:34

That makes sense. So you have a fairly large group, you said over 10 million, were you doing this just as a hobby? You weren't making any money off this group, right? Okay, well, let's talk a little more about the details specifically with Facebook. So first of all, was there some final action that Facebook took that made you want to actually initiate

Facebook Restricting Opposition to Gov

15:29

a lawsuit? Or was it just a combination of a lot of small things like removing posts or marking posts as not true? What is the actual lawsuit that you filed? Like what, what did you ask the court to do.

EU Consequesnces

26:48

In the United States, generally lawsuits are appealed. Almost as soon as they're over. So whichever side loses will right away filed for an appeal. Is that a similar process in, uh, the courts in Poland? And I guess my other question

Polish vs EU laws

27:09

related to that is, is there a different court system for European laws and for Polish laws as a country, or is it done by the same court system?

Any Similar Cases?

29:23

Yeah. Are you aware, have you heard of anybody else,

Easter egg :)

29:26

uh, suing and winning after you in any other country in Europe? Ah, okay.

Future Plans

30:45

So, I guess what's next you have what? Seven more cases that have been filed, right? Uh, what, what are your plans for the future with this. Well, let me ask this. If, if somebody in another European country like Spain or Portugal or something, uh, wants to do the same thing that you did and Sue Facebook for deleting their posts or, or removing them from the account, um, it sounds like based on decision that was made in your case, that would be easier for them to do to file locally. Um, are you in contact with anybody else? Do you know anybody else in Europe, outside of Poland that is talking about or thinking about doing similar things? And is he back on Facebook? Do you have your account? Everything runs, but. There. When is the last post that they blocked? Like what, what's the last thing that, how long ago did that happen? Uh, so you're, you're clearly more involved outside of Facebook as well. Right? So you're going to protests

COVID update

36:27

and things like that. Were you, uh, old enough to be alive, uh, during the downs, uh, protests that like Valencia was leading.

Irony of News Reporting

39:01

It's ironic, but the places that would be, uh, more likely to do a full story with like, with video about what he's had with his case is, is actually RT Russia today. Uh, and Al Jazeera. Yeah, I think ideally what we would find is maybe somebody that's listening to the podcast or maybe somebody who knows somebody, I would be, uh, somebody in the us who is also fluent in, in Polish that way. Uh, he can communicate very quickly and easily and explain exactly, uh, the type of message that, uh, he wants to convey, but I'll do what I can for sure with that conversation. We're going a little long here, so I want to try and wrap things up. Oh, absolutely. They're doing it all the time. Uh, yeah. There Facebook has been shutting down and removing posts from, uh, a lot of different media in the U S that's a very normal occurrence here in the U S the argument so far has not been the same as what he described in the U S the

US Laws

41:22

argument is it's a private company, and they can do whatever they want. Uh, well, that would be great. That would be great if you can win every case. Yeah, no, that, that would be wonderful. In, in the us, the argument that Facebook or Twitter or Google would be treated like a public utility. Yeah, it's, uh, you're balancing two different issues. So the way in the U S right now it's seen, and I'm not saying it's always been this way, but right now, the way it's seen is that, uh, when there are laws for freedom of the press, there are laws against censorship. Those laws only apply to the government, not to private companies. Yeah.

Wrap-up

44:17

Yeah. Well, that's, that's interesting. That's interesting when they're taking different, uh, different approaches there. Yeah. In the U S I think things are. A lot different simply also, because these are both local American companies. Uh, it's easier for people in the U S to want laws or lawsuits or to push back against other companies like Chinese companies, for example. But it's, it's harder to do that with American companies. So Mareklis granted. They will podcast though. Okay. Very good guys. And on that note, I'm gonna wrap it up and hopefully you all enjoyed this episode as well.