Fakebooks in Hungary and Poland

The creators behind Hundub in Hungary and Albicla in Poland both cite the dominance of the US social media companies and concern over their impact on free speech as reasons for their launch - a topic which has gained prominence since Facebook, Twitter and Instagram banned Donald Trump for his role in mobilising crowds that stormed the Capitol in Washington DC on January 6. It is notable that both of the new platforms hail from countries with nationalist-populist governments, whose supporters often rail against the power of the major social media platforms and their managers' alleged anti-conservative bias.

Albicla's connection to the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party is explicit. Right-wing activists affiliated with the PiS-friendly weekly Gazeta Polska are behind Albicla, whose name is as obscure to Poles as it is to the international reader, although Ryszard Kapuscinski from the Gazeta Polska team claims it is an amalgamation of the Latin phrase albus aquila, meaning "white eagle", a Polish national symbol.

The activists say Albicla is a response to the "censorship" of conservative voices by the global internet giants. "We have disturbed the powerful interests and breached the walls of the ideological front that is pushing conservative thinking to the sidelines," Tomasz Sakiewicz, editor-in-chief of Gazeta Polska, wrote on Thursday, the day after the new portal was launched.

"Not all the functionalities are ready because we wanted to launch the portal in the last hour of the rule of the leader of the free world," Sakiewicz continued, referring to Trump's last day in office on January 20. "It is now up to us to ensure this world continues to be free, particularly online."

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