Facebook reportedly restricts Orbán posts, Fidesz politicians and government-close media says

“Open political interference”, ahead of the election, Facebook restricts Viktor Orbán’s posts, news website Mandiner reported on Wednesday.

Facebook helps Péter Magyar?

The site said that Facebook’s interference raised serious questions about the transparency of the management of political content on social media.

Mandiner cited an X post by Lebanese-Australian political commentator Mario Nawfall who said the move had followed a call by an opposition Tisza Party member, a former Meta employee, urging supporters to mass-report his content.

Nawfall added that Tisza leader Péter Magyar had disproportionately high engagement figures, “outperforming global figures, despite operating in a much smaller, language-limited country“.

Meanwhile, Magyar also used a personal “professional mode” profile rather than a political page, he said, adding that “contrary to Meta’s long-standing guidelines, potentially bypassing limits on political content“.

Urgent investigation needed

“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,” Newfall said.

“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,” he added.

“I’ve seen political interference by social media companies in other countries, and I really hope this is not happening in Hungary,” Newfall said in his X post cited by Mandiner.

EU activates system to curb social media content ahead of Hungarian election, Fidesz MEP says

The European Commission has activated a regulatory tool capable of restricting the content of social media ahead of the Hungarian election, Fidesz MEP Csaba Dömötör said in Budapest on Wednesday. “After the oil blockade, here’s the Facebook blockade.”

Dömötör told Hungarian journalists that the Rapid Response System of the Code of Practice on Disinformation of the EU was “a clear interference into Hungarian elections … on behalf of [Tisza leader] Peter Magyar.“

The EC activated a system “supposedly protecting against hate speech and external interference“; at the same time, a report by the US Congress found that “in reality, the EC was calling on large social media companies including Facebook and YouTube to exercise politically motivated censorship,” he said.