Historical controversies in Bosnia and anti-Ukrainian propaganda in Hungary caused some of the most troubling digital breaches of early May.
Killed Children’s Remembrance Day sparks online violations in Bosnia
On May 5, Sarajevo’s Day of Remembrance for Fallen Children was celebrated in Children’s Square in Sarajevo with parents and officials laying flowers and addressing gathered residents. The event was also attended by Sefik Dzaferovic and Zeljko Komsic, members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Memorial to Children Killed in the 1992-1995 siege was inaugurated on May 9, 2009, in Veliki Park in the municipality of Centar, by artist Mensud Kečo. A year after its opening a pedestal was erected containing the names of 521 children, out of an estimated total of 1,621 dead.
A Bosnian woman prays on the 30th anniversary of the Bosnian Independence at a memorial to the fallen soldiers in the Bosnian War (1992-95), in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 01 March 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE/FEHIM DEMIR
Three days after this year’s commemoration day, political analyst and psychologist Srdjan Puhalo wrote an article querying the figures used, titled: “Prove that 1,601 children were killed in Sarajevo or stop using that number”.
“The media in Sarajevo know that this number is not based on reliable research, but still transmit inaccurate information without any evidence. I don’t know why they do that, but in any case, it is not correct, professional, or fair,” Puhalo added.
Following the controversial statements, Puhalo was targeted by several insults and threats on Twitter.
Puhalo was also supported by film director Jasmila Žbanić however, who on May 13 on social media urged institutions to publish accurate data on the number of children killed. The director, who was backed by the Director of the Museum of War Childhood, Jasminko Halilović, and political analyst Ivana Marić, said she had since been exposed to “a wave of anger from those who disagree on the important truth”, adding that, “every child killed deserves to know his or her name and to know exactly how he was killed and who killed him!”
In her police report, she stated that some threats were sent from the Facebook profile of Haris Zahiragić, an MP. “Zahiragić put her name and picture in a false context and provoked a mob calling for a lynch with her lies,” she wrote. Another comment about her had read: “Žbanić should be killed as a matter of urgency”.
Fake news on Ukrainian President continues to go viral in Hungary
Following the April 28 episode of misinformation where Ukrainian President Zelensky was falsely accused of using drugs, online violations targeting Zelensky have not slowed in Hungary’s digital environment.
Disinformation campaigns and misleading news about Zelensky are now commonplace in several countries where social media channels linked to Russia and Belarus aim to destabilize digital environments.
Recently, Pro-Russia online operatives falsely claimed that the Ukrainian President had committed suicide in an attempt to undermine the Ukrainian government and deceive the public.
In an opinion poll launched by Statista, in May, about 65 per cent of Hungarian citizens expressed a negative opinion about Zelensky. This could reflect the disinformation campaigns that pro-Fidesz media outlets have started since the conflict began in Ukraine.
Supporters of Ukraine attend a counter-event against a pro-Russian rally held nearby in Budapest, Hungary, 30 April 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE/Zoltan Balogh
On May 10, an episode was recorded in Hungary where a picture of a weeping girl with a caption calling her the daughter of Zelensky spread among Hungarian Facebook users. The text circulating online says “Zelensky’s daughter” hates her father, who is a “fascist” and “murderer of the Ukrainian people”. However, the picture did not actually show Zelensky’s daughter. It was from a Russian-language video, available online since 2017, in which the crying girl complains that her boyfriend didn’t buy her a new phone.
A further episode of online manipulation occurred on May 16 in which Zelensky was accused of wearing a Nazi swastika. Several social media posts of Zelensky holding a soccer jersey with a swastika in place of a number went viral on Hungarian social media. However, after the detection of pixel discrepancies by AFP, it was found that the picture had been digitally manipulated by adding a swastika to an original photo that Zelensky posted last year, on June 8.
The caption read: “The new jersey of Ukraine’s national football team is special. It can shock. It features several important symbols that unite Ukrainians from Luhansk to Uzhgorod, from Chernihiv to Sevastopol. Our country is one and indivisible. Crimea is Ukraine.”
In polarised Serbia, online attacks on journalists keep going
Although Serbia has some of the most advanced legislation on the media, journalists are routinely threatened by political pressures, and by the impunity of crimes committed against them. In a highly polarised political climate, journalists remain subjected to political attacks instigated by members of the ruling elite that are amplified by certain national TV networks, according to RSF.
A protestor wears a mask while blocking the streets in front of the government headquarters during a protest against Rio Tinto’s plans to open a lithium mine in Belgrade, Serbia, 18 December 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE/ANDREJ CUKIC
Mina Delić, a journalist and photographer from Senta, in the northern province of Vojvodina, received a court summons over the environmental protests and roadblocks organized across Serbia in December last year. She was allegedly marked as a protest organizer because she had posted a call to a protest in a Facebook group. She was summoned to attend the Senta Misdemeanor Court on May 23, and if she does not respond or justify her absence, her arrest would be ordered.
Another case was related to a local government official who used Facebook to insult a journalist and the television station employing her, as well as an opposition activist. Zdravko Mladenović, president of Batočina municipality, posted insulting remarks about Zlatija Labović and Dragan Biočanin, a local opposition activist who Labović had interviewed. Mladenović said: “What else can you expect from such appearances, deserters, traitors, clowns and jukeboxes, to whom you insert something, and they play and sing when you press a button?” Last December, Mladenović also insulted the correspondent of H1 Television shouting: “Why are you filming?” and “You did not announce yourself to come,” expelling the journalist from the Assembly session.
Cyber-attacks and Russian-sponsored DDoS attacks target Romania and North Macedonia
Hacking attacks continue to be registered with alarming frequency in Romania and North Macedonia, where large public companies and institutional sites are targeted by groups that are often linked to Russia.
In the most prominent case of digital rights violations in North Macedonia in the first half of May, scammers targeted one of the biggest banks, NLB Bank and its customers, asking them for their personal data and accounts. The bank warned customers not to share any details with those asking for it, even if they say they are bank representatives.
In another incident, recorded on April 30, the Romanian National Cybersecurity Directorate said its own website was temporarily taken down by a DDoS attack one day after key public institutions in the country were hit by a wave of cyber-attacks claimed by Killnet, a pro-Russia hacking group. The DDoS attack blocked user access to the website for six hours.
A further incident occurred on May 1 when Digi24.ro, the most read news site in Romania, remained unreachable for some hours after a DDoS attack, later also claimed by Killnet. “The Mirai Team is causing massive damage to Digi24 servers. We are waiting for the next success,” the message posted on Killnet’s Telegram said.