BIRN’s monitoring of digital rights violations in August and September highlighted a threatening Hungarian ‘dark web’ site that contained illegally obtained images of women, plus a series of arrests for online sexual abuse in Romania.
The images were found in two folders. In one called ‘Hunt Her Down’, comments explicitly describe the cruelty that would be inflicted on the women in the images. In the other called ‘Girl Meat Market’, there were pictures of women as well as personal data. These pictures also included the price of a ‘bid’, the suggestion being that the uploader would abuse the women in one way or another for the right amount of money. Several girls in the photos appear to be under age.
The issue was first picked up by influencers who saw the posts on Reddit, and then by mainstream media. The outcome of the public outcry was that the majority of the illegal photos were removed from the site. Several victims reported the case to the police, who began an investigation.
Surveillance and stalking
Photo illustration: Franco Alva/Unsplash.
BIRN’s digital rights monitors also registered cases of online abuse and surveillance of women in other countries in central south-east Europe. In Albania, a 33-year-old man was arrested after allegedly opening several fake accounts on Facebook and Instagram, which he is accused of using to stalk a 24-year-old girl from the port city of Durres.
After the girl reported the case, police identified and arrested the suspect, and seized a gun and bullets from his home.
August also marked the re-arrest of controversial online personality Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan Tate. The brothers were detained for the alleged online sexual exploitation of 34 women, including a 15-year-old girl.
Prosecutors accuse the brothers of recruiting their victims through social media and forcing them to produce pornographic materials to be sold online. They allegedly obtained 2.5 million euros from the sexual exploitation of the 34 identified victims. The brothers deny all the accusations, with Andrew Tate claiming on X that he has been the victim of conspiracies.
In an unconnected case in Romania in September, 30-year-old Nicolae Mitrea was arrested in Constanta, a city on the Black Sea coast, for allegedly killing two women in June and August. The women were both sex workers who the suspect allegedly recruited from an escort website.
Following the murders, the suspect allegedly stole the victims’ jewellery, money, and their cars, and is said to have disposed of one of the victim’s body in a field in Constanta County. Mitrea’s wife and her 15-year-old son are also suspects and both have been arrested. Prosecutors accuse them of knowing of the crimes allegedly committed by Mitrea.
In an unrelated case, prosecutors from the Romanian Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism, DIICOT indicted a 17-year-old boy for alleged rape and online child sex abuse in Iasi, a county in the country’s north-east. According to prosecutors, the teenager is accused of raping an 11-year-old relative in July. He is said to have filmed the alleged abuse with his mobile phone and later shared the material on social media.
In August, prosecutors from DIICOT detained a man in an online child sex abuse and blackmail probe in Lasi, a county in north-easte Romania. According to prosecutors, the suspect allegedly recruited an eight-year-old girl on social media in July. He is accused of persuading her to produce online child sex abuse material and send it to him via Facebook Messenger. Subsequently, the suspect allegedly blackmailed the girl to produce even more online child sex abuse material by threatening to inform her parents.
Edona James, a well-known trans woman, was also threatened online in Kosovo. A death threat posted on her Instagram account urged people to kill her, claiming that she has not accepted herself the way God created her. She has reported the death threat to the police. According to the UCLA Williams Institute, transgender people are more likely to be victims of violence than CIS-gendered people.
Video violations
Photo illustration: Roxy/Unsplash.
BIRN’s monitoring registered other types of violations against women in late August and throughout September, ranging from discriminatory remarks to abuse of personal information.
In Romania, prosecutors from DIICOT detained a man accused of threatening and harassing his wife during divorce procedures, as well as having unauthorised access to her data.
According to prosecutors, the suspect allegedly broke into his wife’s email account and systematically changed all her login data for multiple platforms, which the woman was using to manage her company.
Albania’s health and social welfare minister was criticised after publishing a video of a victim of gender-based violence on her official Facebook page. The victim, whose husband allegedly set fire to her, is shown in pain in hospital. The video compromised the privacy of the victim and was distressing for viewers; after media reported on the case, the woman’s face was blurred.
Meanwhile in Montenegro, the Podgorica city administration released a promotional video about the cleanliness of urban areas, depicting a woman in a misogynistic, stereotypical manner. In the video, she is seen being ogled by a man, objectifying her movements and body shape, as well as portrayed as incapable of throwing trash into the bin, requiring a man to help her.
After public criticism, the authorities removed the video, but they defended their conduct, claiming they have the right to artistic freedom and asserting that the criticism was politically motivated pre-election slander by the opposition.
When the media reported on female politicians’ responses, it generated even more sexist rhetoric, such as the misogynistic comments posted by readers under an online article in Vijesti about members of the Women’s Club of the City Assembly criticising the authorities’ rationale for creating the video.
Monitoring: Hungary was covered by Akos Keller-Alant, Romania by Adina Florea, Albania by Nensi Bogdani, Montenegro by Djurdja Radulovic, Kosovo by Flaka Fazlija, Serbia by Tijana Uzelac, North Macedonia by Bojan Stojkovski and Goce Trpkovski, Bosnia and Herzegovina by Elma Selimovic and Aida Trepanic, Turkey by Hamdi Firat Buyuk, Croatia by Katarina Gulan.