There's a candidate for the internet sheriff position. The Prime Minister has named his pick for the UKE president.

• Prime Minister Donald Tusk has nominated Przemysław Kuna, deputy director of NASK and former deputy minister of the Ministry of Interior and Administration, as a candidate for the new president of the Office of Electronic Communications.
• The decision disappointed social organizations that had demanded a transparent procedure and a public hearing for those applying for the nomination.
• The stakes are high – the Office of Electronic Communications will soon become the internet super office.

Przemysław Kuna is the deputy director of the state research institute NASK. On Monday, the Prime Minister nominated him as a candidate for president of the Office of Electronic Communications. "Rzeczpospolita" was the first to report on this. A new president must be elected because the five-year term of the current head of the office, Jacek Oko, expires in September.

Kuna is responsible for infrastructure projects at NASK, including the National Educational Network, which connects 20,000 schools. Previously, he served as Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Interior and Administration, coordinating the development of the State Register System. He also worked for private telecommunications companies. "He possesses the knowledge, experience, and predispositions necessary to hold the position of President of the Office of Electronic Communications," wrote Donald Tusk when submitting his candidacy to the Sejm.

Now, Kuna must gain approval from the Sejm's Digital Affairs Committee, and then the entire Sejm. A simple majority is enough to become president. Therefore, if there is no breach in the coalition, he will take office in Warsaw's Giełdowa Street in October.

Social activists wanted to ask the President of the Office of Electronic Communications questions

The election of the new president, however, is controversial. The issue isn't Przemysław Kuna himself, but rather how he was chosen by Donald Tusk. "The Chancellery of the Prime Minister completely ignored our calls for transparency in the selection," the Panoptykon Foundation wrote in a statement.

Social activists dealing with digital rights on the internet appealed to the Prime Minister to allow social organizations to participate in the work of the competition commission (appointed in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister) and ask questions of the candidates.

The second proposed solution was to organize an open hearing of the candidates nominated by this committee to the Prime Minister.

This wouldn't be a precedent. So far, the ruling coalition has held public hearings for candidates for the positions of Children's Ombudsman, President of the Personal Data Protection Office, Head of the National Electoral Office, and even President of the Supreme Audit Office.

A total of 10 people applied for the nomination, and could have been asked about their vision for the office, among other things. However, the Prime Minister decided to nominate a candidate for UKE president without the involvement of community activists.

The Office of Electronic Communications is to become a super-office for the internet

Why was the opportunity to ask candidates for this position important? The Office of Electronic Communications already has extensive powers related to overseeing the telecommunications market. In the near future, however, it will become a super-office for internet regulation – the government is working on several laws that will add to its powers. These include the Data Management Act, the Artificial Intelligence Systems Act, and, most importantly, the act implementing the EU Digital Services Act.

Under the amended Act on the Provision of Electronic Services, the President of the Office of Electronic Communications (UKE) will, for example, receive complaints about infringements from users of online platforms, including social media giants like Facebook and TikTok. She will also issue orders to block illegal content and restore materials wrongly removed by service providers . She will also conduct proceedings against Polish internet service providers.

The President of the Office of Electronic Communications (UKE) will also be empowered to certify out-of-court dispute resolution bodies, additional bodies meant to mediate between users and online platforms. He will also grant the status of "Trusted Whistleblower," whose reports of illegal content are treated more quickly and seriously than those of ordinary users.

All of this will give the UKE president significant influence over the flow of content online. The organizations wanted the public to have at least a minimal understanding of how candidates intend to use it.