BIRN’s latest three-month monitoring review of digital violations, covering the period from January to March, highlights how online targeting of politicians and government critics, as well as other forms of digital intimidation, have become significant issues of concern in the Balkans and Central and Eastern Europe.
Political targeting has become a worrying issue in the Balkans, with threats and online harassment of politicians and individuals who criticise people in power, according to BIRN’s review of digital violations for the period from January to March this year.
Several cases of political censorship, intimidation and legal suppression of dissent have been reported across the region in the period.
These incidents include threatening messages sent to political figures on Twitter, the erasure of the digital profiles of dissenters, and legal indictments of critical journalists.
The spread of misinformation on social media platforms has also continued to be a significant problem, with cases reported in Hungary, Romania, Montenegro and Croatia.
Several countries, including Albania, Serbia, Hungary, North Macedonia, Romania and Croatia, have reported an increase in cyber threats in recent months.
Phishing attacks have been rampant, with hackers sending malicious messages and emails posing as reputable organisations and authorities, such as Díjnet in Hungary and Interpol in Serbia. Companies and individuals have also fallen victim to online scams, losing thousands of euros in the process.
Politicians and public figures under attack
There has been an increasing number of cases involving the political of targeting of critics in the period from January to March. Such actions have a chilling effect on freedom of speech and the press, as well as on the ability of civil society to hold governments accountable for their actions.
President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic addresses the media after the High-level Meeting of the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue in Ohrid, Republic of North Macedonia, 18 March 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE/GEORGI LICOVSKI
On March 30, users of an anonymous forum on the Klix.ba website made alarming calls for the liquidation of two high-profile Bosnian individuals: Foreign Minister Elmedin Konakovic and Nermin Niksic, the president of the Social Democratic Party. This caused widespread concern and condemnation among politicians and members of the public alike. Many politicians called for the security agencies to take action.
On January 16, Biljana Stojkovic, co-president of the Zajedno party in Serbia, was alarmed when she received a threatening message on Twitter. She reported the incident to the police, but said that she could not shake off the feeling of being watched and targeted.
The same day, Petar Djuric, president of the Citizens’ Association, was detained for criticising Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on social media. He was taken into custody by the Service for Combatting Organised Crime, SBPOK, questioned and then later released.
Another incident occurred in Montenegro, where the opposition Social Democratic Party MP Draginja Vuksanovic Stankovic was insulted in obscene and degrading comments on daily newspaper Vijesti’s Facebook page on January 12.
Meanwhile online political censorship is a tool that has been used by those in power. In Hungary, the Facebook profile of politician Orsolya Besenyi, who supported by the ruling Fideszparty but ran in the Jászberény local by-election as an independent, disappeared on January 16. Several days of posts on the Fidesz Jászság Facebook page were also deleted after Besenyi lost the by-election. The erasure of her digital presence was seen as a warning to other dissenters.
Online intimidation has also been used to silence critics in Hungary. After Ákos Hadházy, an independent MEP, reported that István Eged, the Fidesz party mayor of Pétervására, used EU funds for the benefit of his family, Eged sent Hadházy a threatening message on January 30, saying: “Be sure to see me again. … You will beg.” The message was seen as an indication that Eged wanted to stop any scrutiny of his actions.
Another case showed how social media can also be used by members of the public to intimidate and threaten others.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina on January 15, Emir Suljagic, the director of the Srebrenica Memorial Centre, posted a series of tweets commenting on an attack on a group of Serbs in Sarajevo.
Suljagic’s tweets included a picture of Bosnian Serb soldiers on the hills above Sarajevo during the 1992-95 siege. A Twitter user named SavoljuB responded: “Once Republika Srpska becomes part of Serbia, Potocari [where the memorial centre is located] will be flattened with an excavator and turned into a landfill.”
Misinformation in Montenegro, Hungary, Romania, Croatia
The spread of misinformation remains a significant problem on social media platforms as several recent cases in Montenegro, Hungary, Romania and Croatia show.
Visiting Speaker of the Hungarian Parliament Laszlo Kover and the President of the Parliament of Montenegro Ivan Brajovic (unseen) arrive for a joint news conference following their meeting at the Vila Gorica in Podgorica, Montenegro, 10 September 2018. Photo: EPA-EFE/BORIS PEJOVIC
On February 21, the German ambassador to Podgorica, Peter Felten, accused the Montenegrin news website Borba of publishing falsehoods. Felten told the newspaper Vijesti that Borba published a false story about a presidential election survey and said the German embassy had never done such a survey.
In Hungary, after a far-right march in Budapest, extreme right-wing media outlets Vadhajtások and Pesti Srácok on February 11 falsely accused last MP András Jámbor, his movement Szikra and left-wing news Mérce of organising violence that broke out, despite evidence that foreign members of Antifa being responsible.
The personal data of Hungarian left-wing activists was also published on social media and Telegram, leading to threats of physical violence. Meanwhile, a manipulated photo of László Kövér, the ruling Fidesz party speaker of the Hungarian parliament, was circulated on Facebook on February 6, falsely showing Kövér as a young man standing next to János Kádár, who was the Communist leader of Hungary.
In Romania on March 9, the Defence Ministry issued a warning to the public about misinformation on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram regarding mandatory military mobilisation. The ministry identified at least seven misinformation campaigns on this subject since the start of the Russian war in Ukraine, with the latest targeting citizens of Bucharest. The ministry said it believes that the aim of the campaigns is to generate confusion, panic and uncertainty among the population.
Also in Romania, dozens of mainstream media websites shared a piece of false information on February 12 about a change in the Romanian Road Code making it mandatory for drivers to carry a shovel and a supply of sand in the car during winter months, with drivers who weren’t equipped facing fines of up to 600 euros. However, police confirmed that no such change had been made to the Road Code. No original source was established for the fake news, which was shared by media outlets with large followings, including Newsweek, Capital, Click and Antena 3.
On January 20, a fake news article entitled “Secret CDC report confirms that 118,000 young people ‘suddenly died’ after vaccination” was published by SHTFplan, a conspiracy theory website, and circulated on social media in Croatia. The article falsely claimed that US presidential medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci used propaganda, lies, and manipulation to force parents to vaccinate their children and that 118,000 young people died after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.
However, none of the information in the article no unusual increase in deaths after vaccination against the coronavirus has been reported. Fact-checkers at Faktograf concluded that the story was false.
Navigating cybersecurity threats
In recent months, several cyber threats have been reported across Europe. On March 31, a 28-year-old man from Albania was arrested for engaging in online fraud. The man is believed to have illegally obtained 100,000 euros by stealing personal account information from Kosovo citizens on various social media platforms. Once the perpetrator gained access to the accounts, he proceeded to demand money from the victim’s family members and close acquaintances.
A photo illustration shows the logo of social media messaging application Telegram on a mobile telephone screen, in Paris, France, 27 January 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE/IAN LANGSDON
On March 21 in North Macedonia, scammers used several humanitarian cases to lure donations on various social media channels, posing as relatives or close friends of people who are in need of donations for operations or other reasons.
On January 19, Russian hackers launched targeted phishing attacks on popular Facebook pages of Hungarian influencers, while on January 25, people in Serbia received false malicious messages from the Stara Pazova Health Centre and the Moj Doktor website as part of a phishing campaign in Serbia.
In Croatia, a company from Valpovo was scammed out of 31,000 euros when an unknown perpetrator falsely presented themselves as a director and requested a transaction to an account of another foreign company on January 18.
On January 24 meanwhile, a company from Zagreb lost hundreds of thousands of euros in a matter of minutes in an online scam. An employee received a message to update the company’s mobile banking app, which led to several hundred thousand euros being paid from the company’s account to ones owned by the unknown perpetrator
Phishing attacks have also been on the rise, with unknown people sending emails on behalf of Díjnet, an electronic bill service in Hungary, the Hungarian police and Interpol, accusing the recipients of involvement in child pornography.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, sellers on the OLX.ba platform were targeted by cyber fraudsters who contacted them via Viber or other communication networks and requested bank card data after agreeing to purchase an item. Similarly, Bosnian lawyer Veronika Jancik fell victim to internet fraud when an unknown person asked for a voucher worth around 25 euros using a relative’s fake Instagram profile.
On February 17, hackers broke into the email system of the International Investment Bank in Budapest in Hungary and stole emails, documents, and other sensitive information.
On February 22, an unknown perpetrator blackmailed a company in Osijek in Croatia by making some of its computer data inaccessible and demanding payment of 0.5 bitcoin (around 11,400 euros) to a virtual account in order to unlock it.