Complaint to Wirtualna Polska by “Never Again” Association

Our project partner, the "NEVER AGAIN" Association, recently took a bold stand against antisemitism. They filed a powerful complaint to Wirtualna Polska highlighting the uncritical spread of antisemitic content on their YouTube channel.

Screenshot of Wirtualna Polska 9/8/2024

Dear Editors,
I am writing to you on behalf of the "NEVER AGAIN" Association, a partner of the international project counteracting hate speech Get The Trolls Out, implemented in cooperation with the Media Diversity Institute in London (more information: https://nigdywiecej.org/en/projects/get-the-trolls-out ).

We would like to draw your attention to the problem of uncritical reproduction of anti-Semitic content via the YouTube channel operating under the brand of Wirtualna Polska.

Here is an example:
On July 3 this year, representatives of the Confederation organized a
press conference in the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, during which they expressed anti-Semitic content. MP Włodzimierz Skalik expressed his appreciation for the act of anti-Semitic aggression that Grzegorz Braun committed in the Sejm in December 2023 (when he used a fire extinguisher to put out a candle lit on the occasion of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah and injured one of the participants, who was hospitalized for a week).
Skalik expressed contempt for the Judaic holiday: "We were dealing with a shameful, racist celebration in the Sejm, referring to events from the history of Israel, it was not a religious celebration. And it is precisely the pro-Polish attitude of our MP [Braun] that is being criticized by the United States Department [sic!, referring to the annual report on religious freedom published in July by the US Department of State, which noted anti-Semitic incidents involving Braun]." During the parliamentary press conference, Braun also spoke (he was elected as a member of the European Parliament in June), who delivered a tirade full of historical manipulations about the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, where over 90% of the victims were Jews): "This is the memory of Poles, this is our place of remembrance, we are the hosts here. We do not agree to the appropriation of Auschwitz
[...] by Jews, whether Soviets or Zionists." Braun concluded his speech by repeating an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory and making threats against Jews: "Both you, Jews from Israel, and you, Jews from America, will no longer rule the nations of this world!" The recording was published - without any comment - on the Wirtualna Polska YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJTU5ywxAko), where it had almost half a million views within a few weeks. Under the video material on your channel, there were numerous comments filled with hatred towards Jews, in no way moderated.

In this way, the Wirtualna Polska channel turned out to be an uncritical transmitter of anti-Semitic propaganda. We assume that this is not in line with the values dear to your editorial office, so we expect that - as part of your company's social responsibility - you will take appropriate steps to rectify this situation and ensure that a situation of this kind does not occur again. We remain ready to cooperate with you in the future.

Best regards,

“Never Again” Association