CONSTITUTIONALISATION OF CYBER THREATS TO GENERALELECTIONS

Abstract

Universal suffrage by means of technology can in some cases become essential. Voting by e-mail, text message or information system raises many ethical and legal challenges. Add to this the intensified wave of disinformation during the election campaign period, and a problem of a systemic nature may arise with respect to the question of the necessity of regulating elections by technical means at the constitutional level. Such a need arises from the obligation to maintain statehood both from the perspective of the implementation of elections and the impact on society of harmful disinformation, ending with cyber threats related to vote rigging, identity theft or hacking of election servers. The aim of this paper is to show the legality of disinformation during general elections at the constitutional level. An explanation of disinformation activities and an analysis of cyber attacks in selected countries around the world shows that disinformation and cyber attacks have a significant impact on the final outcome of general elections. In this state of affairs, the key question arises as to whether the good protected directly by the Constitution of the Republic of Poland should be attributed stronger protection of the freedom of speech, which is an individual right expressed in Article 54 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, or the assurance of security of the State and its citizens in the form of ensuring democratic elections in a state governed by the rule of law with the help of the criminalization at the constitutional level of disinformation and influence on general elections by technical means. Ensuring security of the State and its citizens is one of the cardinal duties of the Polish State enshrined in Article 5 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland.