Officials said Monday that Poland intends to sign an international copyright treaty criticized as a clampdown on freedom of speech by online activists who launched attacks on government websites.

After meeting Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Culture Minister Bogdan Zdrojewski, Michal Boni, Poland's minister for administration and digitization, indicated the government would sign the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) in Tokyo on Thursday, alongside other EU member states.

Boni said that the agreement does not entail any changes to Polish law. But Poland's opposition parties have called on the government not to sign the agreement, which aims to protect international intellectual property rights and fight online piracy.

Earlier Monday, deputy Prime Minister Waldemar Pawlak said that Poland could put off signing the treaty.

Over the weekend, the websites of the Polish parliament, the prime minister’s office and the Ministry of Culture ground to a halt or were disrupted by Polish internet users.

Critics have compared ACTA to the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act in the US, which was shelved by American lawmakers last week after widespread protests. Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, shut the English-language version of its website for 24 hours in protest at censorship of the web.