Wednesday, March 18, 2026

I Am Not Entirely Thrilled With Hungary's Prime Minister ORBÁN

 But this is also concerning:

🇭🇺 EXCLUSIVE BREAKING: FACEBOOK RESTRICTS ORBÁN POSTS WEEKS BEFORE HUNGARY’S ELECTION As Hungary heads toward a crucial April election, Facebook is reportedly restricting posts from the country’s Prime Minister. The move followed a call by an opposition party (Tisza Party) member, a former Meta employee, urging supporters to mass-report his content. Meanwhile, Tisza leader Péter Magyar has disproportionately high engagement figures, outperforming global figures, despite operating in a much smaller, language-limited country Péter also used a personal “professional mode” profile rather than a political page, contrary to Meta’s long-standing guidelines, potentially bypassing limits on political content. Questions are also emerging around how Meta moderates political content in Hungary. A regional Meta official has publicly shared positions aligned with mainstream European narratives, including pro-Ukraine messaging and content seen as anti-government in Hungary. If Hungary’s largest social platform keeps restricting Orbán’s content while opposition accounts seem inflated before the election, serious questions arise about free speech and democratic integrity. This requires an urgent investigation. I’ve seen political interference by social media companies in other countries, and I really hope this is not happening in Hungary.

Others have responded that this oversimplifies what Facebook is doing and that this is in part the  consequence of new rules about political ads:

The claim of Facebook specifically restricting Orbán's personal posts lacks clear confirmation in recent reports. Instead, Meta suspended several pro-government Hungarian news pages (e.g., county newspapers) in late February 2026, weeks before the April 12 election, sparking interference accusations. Péter Magyar's Tisza Party leads polls and draws massive crowds, with high organic engagement on Facebook likely from genuine momentum against Orbán's long rule, not proven inflation. Meta's EU political ad ban (since Oct 2025) affects both sides; Fidesz circumvents via loopholes and grassroots "digital fighters." Bias concerns exist on all platforms, but evidence points more to broader moderation (including pro-Orbán outlets) than targeted censorship of Orbán alone. Urgent scrutiny of Big Tech in elections is fair democracy demands transparency from all players.

At least part of why Péter Magyar is a thorn in Orbán's side is a scandal involving child sexual abuse:

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has yet to comment on the resignation of two of the most prominent politicians of the Fidesz party – President Katalin Novak and former justice minister Judit Varga –  as he continues to maintain a low profile amid the biggest scandal rocking his government since taking office in 2010.

The child sexual abuse scandal is threatening the very foundations of the regime, Political Capital wrote in a note.

 In a nutshell, the story goes back to April 2023 when Novak gave pardons to two dozen people, including convicted terrorist Gyogy Budahazy, an influential figure of the far-right and now aligned with the parliamentary party Our Homeland. Novak also pardoned Endre Konya, the deputy director of a children’s home in Bicske, central Hungary, who used blackmail to force young boys to withdraw their testimony against the director, who had abused them sexually for years.

The Dutroux scandal exposed some worrisome problems with the Belgian law enforcement agencies.

The power of really big companies to affect elections is worrying. While a defeat of Orbán would also be a defeat for Russia, I think Facebook power is also worrisome.

 

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