Polish NGO implicated in alleged “illegal election ads” favouring frontrunner Trzaskowski

A prominent NGO engaged in promoting democracy played a role in creating material that was used in allegedly foreign-funded Facebook adverts supporting Rafał Trzaskowski, the presidential candidate of Poland’s main ruling party, and criticising his rivals.

There remain many unanswered questions over who organised and financed the campaign. Foreign funding for election campaigns is not permitted under Polish law.

There is no evidence that Trzaskowski, his campaign team or his centrist Civic Platform (PO) party were involved in producing or promoting the adverts. However, the opposition has described the situation as a scandal that threatens the fairness of the campaign for this Sunday’s presidential election.

On Wednesday, NASK, a Polish state research institute, announced that it had identified political adverts on Facebook that may be financed from abroad, something not permitted under Polish law. Later in the day, it announced that Facebook’s owner, Meta, had banned the adverts.

NASK did not reveal the nature or source of the adverts. But leading media outlets identified them as videos promoted by two anonymous Facebook accounts. The films, recorded on the streets of Polish cities, showed people praising Trzaskowski or criticising his right-wing rivals Karol Nawrocki and Sławomir Mentzen.

Publicly available data from Facebook show that hundreds of thousands of zloty was spent on the adverts in the space of one month – more than the outlay on political advertising of any of the official election committees representing the candidates.

In an investigation published on Thursday morning, Wirtualna Polska, a leading news website, reported that staff and volunteers associated with an NGO called Akcja Demokracja (Democracy Action) had been involved in producing the videos.

Wirtualna Polska’s journalists spoke with three of the people who had appeared in the videos, who confirmed that they were encouraged to participate by people from Akcja Demokracja.

The NGO itself then confirmed to Wirtualna Polska that one of its employees had helped a foreign partner find people willing to take part in the films, but said its role went no further than that.

“We did a favour to a company we work with on a regular basis and that was the end of our role,” said Akcja Demokracja. “It was not connected with any formal decisions of the organisation’s authorities.”

In a further statement published on Thursday, Akcja Demokracja reiterated that it had no connection with the Facebook adverts, nor was it involved in financing or coordinating the videos.

The organisation said it had merely passed on a request from its long-term IT service provider to volunteers willing to appear in pro-turnout videos. “It was entirely up to the individuals to decide whether and in what form they chose to speak,” they said.

The company to which they were referring is the Vienna-based Estratos Digital, which is led by two Hungarians – one of them, Ádám Ficsor, a former government minister responsible for the intelligence services – reports Wirtualna Polska.

The company specialises in digital political marketing and campaigning, in particular for progressive causes. It has not responded to Wirtualna Polska’s questions about its involvement in the recent Polish political adverts.

The news website notes that the president of Akcja Demokracja, Jakub Kocjan, was until recently a parliamentary assistant to an MP from PO, Iwona Karolewska.

Just last week, Kocjan was pictured attending an event organised by NASK and attended by digital affairs minister Krzysztof Gawkowski at which participants discussed ways of ensuring “safe elections and protection against disinformation”.

Kocjan was also given an award in 2020 by Trzaskowski (who is the mayor of Warsaw) for his “pro-democratic and anti-fascist activities, and in particular for active defence of the independence of the judiciary”, reports Wirtualna Polska.

During the rule of the former national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government from 2015 to 2023, Akcja Demokracja was prominently involved in organising demonstrations against PiS policies, in particular its overhaul of the judiciary.

Meanwhile, Wirtualna Polska has also established that NASK was wrong to say that Facebook has now banned the adverts in question. In fact, the paid campaign came to a natural and planned end.

Meta itself also released a statement to the Polish Press Agency (PAP) through a PR agency in which it said that its “findings indicate that the administrator associated with these pages has confirmed their identity and is located in Poland. We have not found any evidence of foreign interference”.

PO figures have insisted that the party and Trzaskowski’s campaign had no connection to the Facebook adverts in question.

“Rafał Trzaskowski’s committee informed Meta two days ago that it has nothing to do with the Akcja Demokracja case,” said deputy defence minister Cezary Tomczyk, quoted by news website Interia. “We categorically distance ourselves from this process.”

However, PiS, which is now the main opposition party, has demanded action to clarify what happened and hold accountable those guilty of neglect or wrongdoing. In particular, they have criticised NASK.

Janusz Cieszyński, a former PiS digital affairs minister, said that the agency had cooperated with Kocjan despite already having information about the “illegal campaign” on Facebook. He called for the head of NASK’s Cyberspace Information Protection Division to be dismissed.

Later on Thursday, investigative news website OKO.press, which has long been tracking and reporting on the political adverts in question, published further findings suggesting that the Facebook campaign could have links to the United States.

It notes, like Wirtualna Polska did in its reporting, that the majority shareholder in Estratos in an American fund with ties to the Democratic Party in the US.

OKO.press says that it has established that the person representing Estratos in organising the campaign appears to have ties an initiative called Civic Agency run by an American who cooperated with the White House during the Obama administration. It does not name any of the individuals allegedly involved.

The news website also notes, however, that if any foreign individuals or organisations were simply involved in the campaign, rather than funding it, that would not be illegal. Only foreign funding would violate the electoral code.

Main image credit: Slawomir Kaminski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl