The anti-vaccination movement, which has been present worldwide for nearly two hundred years, has become an extraordinarily visible movement of protest against the announced COVID-19 pandemic and mass vaccination against SARS-CoV-2. The National Association for Knowledge on Vaccine STOP NOP, known for years – during a pandemic – along with echo chambers in alt-internet resonating anti-COVID, anti-mask and anti-vaccine propaganda, has become one of the main participants in the COVID discourse effectively influencing the opinions, attitudes and behaviors of Poles towards the virus, COVID restrictions and vaccines.
The phenomenon of anti-vaccination movement in cyberspace, or fake news and post-truth in the service of Andrew Wakefield hypothesis Abstract The opponents of vaccinations have been expressing their concerns about the undesirable effects of vaccinations for more than two hundred years. They are guided by religious and ideological reasons and refuse to immunize themselves and children. They argue that the obligation to vaccinate is a limitation of their human rights. The vaccination movement has been present in the social sphere since the 19th century, however after the publication of Andrew Wakefield's article on the subject of the alleged connection between vaccination and autism – the movement became very popular and contributed to a significant increase in the number of unvaccinated children in some countries. Nowadays, in the cyberspace and mass communication, it seems that both medical and social sciences face new challenges related to the spread of the movement. Hate speech, fake news and disinformation present in cyberspace strengthen and consolidate anti-vaccine attitudes. The phenomenon of Facebook means that every information can be made available to other users a few thousand times – even the untrue and misleading
The regress of liberal democracy in the world has been progressing for years and the number of countries with the full democracy index is decreasing [Economist Intelligence Unit 2018, 2019; Freedom House 2018]. One of the serious threats to the rule of law and the human rights in modern democracy has become discriminatory legalism which is both strategy and weapon [Weyland 2013]. In order to weaken or marginalize the opposition and "rebellious" citizens, public authorities apply discriminatory legal instruments and democratic rules depending on who they are concerned with. Public authorities do this because of political views and use exclusion rhetoric, a language of hatred, stigmatizing all "strangers", at last use hate speech on the Internet and beyond. The weaponization of hate speech is a convenient instrument for political struggle and the fight against inconvenient opponents. Hate speech is also used by far-right and nationalist organizations in the public sphere, which operate in an atmosphere of consent to their radical behaviour. Political hate speech plays an important role in the discriminatory legal strategy. Poland is included in the group of countries with flawed democracy (Article 7(1) TEU since 2017). The authorities introduced changes in law (which were defied as the "Frankensteinisation of legislation" by the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe [PACE] in 2019), democratic institutions and the prosecution applies a discriminatory legalism strategy. This problem is highlighted by the current Commissioner for Human Rights which is an independent institution in the field of fighting hate speech (except a few independent media and NGOs informing about the hate speech phenomenon). Many of hate speech cases are discontinued or not taken up by the prosecution. The numbers of cases of hate speech and hate incidents are increasing but the Polish authorities use the underreporting mechanism. The Ombudsman warns that only 5% of cases are reported to the police. The language of hatred and contempt used by the authorities in Poland has become the weaponization in the fight against citizens as political opponents: LGBT+ community, refugees, political opponents, independent judges and others.
The regress of liberal democracy in the world has been progressing for years and the number of countries with the full democracy index is decreasing [Economist Intelligence Unit 2018, 2019; Freedom House 2018]. One of the serious threats to the rule of law and the human rights in modern democracy has become discriminatory legalism which is both strategy and weapon [Weyland 2013]. In order to weaken or marginalize the opposition and "rebellious" citizens, public authorities apply discriminatory legal instruments and democratic rules depending on who they are concerned with. Public authorities do this because of political views and use exclusion rhetoric, a language of hatred, stigmatizing all "strangers", at last use hate speech on the Internet and beyond. The weaponization of hate speech is a convenient instrument for political struggle and the fight against inconvenient opponents. Hate speech is also used by far-right and nationalist organizations in the public sphere, which operate in an atmosphere of consent to their radical behaviour. Political hate speech plays an important role in the discriminatory legal strategy. Poland is included in the group of countries with flawed democracy (Article 7(1) TEU since 2017). The authorities introduced changes in law (which were defined as the "Frankensteinisation of legislation" by the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe [PACE] in 2019), democratic institutions and the prosecution applies a discriminatory legalism strategy. This problem is highlighted by the current Commissioner for Human Rights which is an independent institution in the field of fighting hate speech (except a few independent media and NGOs informing about the hate speech phenomenon). Many of hate speech cases are discontinued or not taken up by the prosecution. The numbers of cases of hate speech and hate incidents are increasing but the Polish authorities use the underreporting mechanism. The Ombudsman warns that only 5% of cases are reported to the police. The language of hatred and contempt used by the authorities in Poland has become the weaponization in the fight against citizens as political opponents: LGBT+ community, refugees, political opponents, independent judges and others. ; The regress of liberal democracy in the world has been progressing for years and the number of countries with the full democracy index is decreasing [Economist Intelligence Unit 2018, 2019; Freedom House 2018]. One of the serious threats to the rule of law and the human rights in modern democracy has become discriminatory legalism which is both strategy and weapon [Weyland 2013]. In order to weaken or marginalize the opposition and "rebellious" citizens, public authorities apply discriminatory legal instruments and democratic rules depending on who they are concerned with. Public authorities do this because of political views and use exclusion rhetoric, a language of hatred, stigmatizing all "strangers", at last use hate speech on the Internet and beyond. The weaponization of hate speech is a convenient instrument for political struggle and the fight against inconvenient opponents. Hate speech is also used by far-right and nationalist organizations in the public sphere, which operate in an atmosphere of consent to their radical behaviour. Political hate speech plays an important role in the discriminatory legal strategy. Poland is included in the group of countries with flawed democracy (Article 7(1) TEU since 2017). The authorities introduced changes in law (which were defied as the "Frankensteinisation of legislation" by the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe [PACE] in 2019), democratic institutions and the prosecution applies a discriminatory legalism strategy. This problem is highlighted by the current Commissioner for Human Rights which is an independent institution in the field of fighting hate speech (except a few independent media and NGOs informing about the hate speech phenomenon). Many of hate speech cases are discontinued or not taken up by the prosecution. The numbers of cases of hate speech and hate incidents are increasing but the Polish authorities use the underreporting mechanism. The Ombudsman warns that only 5% of cases are reported to the police. The language of hatred and contempt used by the authorities in Poland has become the weaponization in the fight against citizens as political opponents: LGBT+ community, refugees, political opponents, independent judges and others.
Zgodnie z przyjętą w 2000 r. Strategią Lizbońską celem strategicznym rozwoju UE do 2010 r. miało być uczynienie z Europy najbardziej konkurencyjnej i innowacyjnej, opartej na wiedzy gospodarki świata. W ramach Strategii Lizbońskiej i inicjatywy eEurope podjęto wiele działań o charakterze politycznym, które miały na celu rozwój społeczeństwa informacyjnego przez wykorzystanie technologii w handlu, administracji publicznej, służbie zdrowia, edukacji i innych dziedzinach życia społecznego. W 2010 r. przyjęto kolejny dokument – Strategię 2020, której celem stało się osiągnięcie wzrostu gospodarczego po okresie kryzysu globalnego z lat 2008–2010, który powinien być inteligentny, zrównoważony i sprzyjający włączeniu społecznemu.
The contemporary discourse on human rights is a discourse in which its participants are using the language of polarization, exclusion and stigmatization towards various social groups, e.g. Ukrainians, women, migrants, refugees, LGBT. The inalienable and universal nature of human rights is being questioned as well as an equality before the law. In political communication, the language of discrediting political opponents is increasingly used, as well as the rhetoric of fear, aversion and hostility towards "strangers" is used. This is because the contemporary public discourse on human rights is increasingly infected with mis(dis)information and malicious information and its participants – from Kremlin propagandists to national agents of influence – use the manipulative infrastructure of social media.
The measure of civilizational progress is not only economic development, which for several years has been determined by the development of computer science, but also an increase in the level of respect for human rights and freedoms guaranteed in various international legal documents. The Internet is increasingly determining the use of personal, political, social, and economic rights. Public authorities, as part of positive obligations, should be more actively involved in the protection of human rights, especially the freedom of expression and the right to privacy, which are currently being violated quite widely and especially in the horizontal dimension in cyberspace.
