Krzysztof Gawkowski is Poland's deputy prime minister and minister of digital affairs. On 16 October 2026 he became the named government official pressing major online platforms for faster removal of violent illegal content after three school stabbing attacks in four days, with Polish data showing 89 reports between 7 and 12 October and action on only about 30.
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Poland's government profile identifies Gawkowski as deputy prime minister and minister of digital affairs. His portfolio puts him at the intersection of public safety, platform accountability and civil liberties: the state can demand lawful action against prohibited material, but it also has to avoid turning an emergency into an undefined censorship mandate.
The immediate trigger was a cluster of school attacks. Reuters reported three stabbing incidents in four days, including an attack in Warsaw that injured three people, an earlier attack in which a former pupil killed a caretaker and wounded two teachers, and another in which a 19-year-old injured ten people. Gawkowski's ministry convened representatives of major technology platforms on 16 October. The ministry's own communication framed the meeting around children's safety and faster response to harmful and illegal content.
The numbers sharpen the criticism. Polish reporting based on the ministry's figures said authorities sent 89 reports of illegal content from 7 to 12 October and that roughly 30 were removed or restricted. That means a majority had not produced the action officials were seeking during the period examined. Reuters reported that X was invited and did not attend. An official ministry release listed a broader group of invited firms and described attendance differently for several companies, so this profile does not overstate the status of Telegram or Snap; the defensible common ground is that Google, Meta, TikTok and Discord were among the firms engaged and that X did not participate.
Gawkowski's pressure campaign sits under Prime Minister Donald Tusk (opens in a new tab) and touches both rule of law and civic space (opens in a new tab). The government's case is strongest where requests are tied to clearly illegal material, transparent procedures and rapid channels with platforms. It becomes weaker if "harmful" is allowed to substitute for a legal threshold without appeal or disclosure.
The platforms' strongest defence is that content moderation at scale requires classification, context and legal certainty, and immediate removal can produce false positives. The evidence cutting against complacency is the ministry's own enforcement data: in a week of acute concern, only around one-third of the 89 reported items had been acted on. The next test is whether promised contacts, training and age-safety measures produce measurable response improvements without weakening lawful expression.
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