Veysel Ok, a lawyer and co-director of Media and Law Studies Association, MLSA, filed a criminal complaint on Friday against mobile network operators and the executives of Turkey’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority, BTK, following the ban imposed on Twitter and TikTok during the quake disaster.
Ok’s criminal complaint against them includes “misuse of public duty”, “prevention of communication”, “reckless killing” and “reckless injury”.
“At a time when people were literally holding onto life via social media, this kind of recklessness and irresponsibility are unacceptable,” Ok told BIRN, underlying that the application of bandwidth throttling is “a direct harm inflicted onto people”.
Monday’s massive earthquakes in Turkey registering 7.9 and 7.7 on the Richter scale have devastated the country’s south and south-eastern regions. Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency, AFAD, said it believed at least 18,991 people lost their lives and more than 75,500 were injured.
“Turkey is experiencing one of the worst disasters in its history. The authorities, who are responsible for protecting the lives of citizens, but cannot prevent this, actively seek to undermine citizens’ communication, journalists’ work and, unfortunately, search and rescue efforts,” Ok said.
The government’s response to the earthquake has been criticized by numerous survivors, experts and journalists, who say it has failed to deliver assistance to several devastated areas and not used the armed forces effectively, despite having 120,000 personnel in the region.
On Wednesday, it also blocked access to Twitter and TikTok – main sources of communication for relatives of victims, survivors and aid campaigners. Many people were rescued after they shared their situation and location via Twitter.
Internet connection was also reportedly slowed down by the authorities in what it calls a fight against misinformation.
“The responsibility of GSM operators and BTK officials should not be forgotten in the dust cloud of this disaster,” Ok said, adding that it is the duty of the state to effectively investigate related deaths and bring those responsible before the courts.
“We expect our criminal complaint to be processed promptly and investigated effectively,” Ok concluded.
Twitter was restored in Turkey on Friday following a meeting between government officials and Twitter on Thursday. According to Turkish officials, Twitter pledged to cooperate and to support “Turkey’s efforts to combat disinformation”.
The Turkish government has blocked most access to Twitter following growing public anger towards President Recep Tayyip Erdogan government’s response to Monday’s deadly earthquakes.
“Twitter has been restricted in #Turkey; the filtering is applied on major internet providers and comes as the public come to rely on the service in the aftermath of a series of deadly earthquakes,” NetBlocks, an internet observatory that follows global net freedoms, announced.
People now cannot access Twitter at all via two of the three main internet providers. TurkTelekom and Turkcell have completely blocked access. Vodafone still allows slower access to Twitter.
Days after the most devastating earthquake disaster in modern-day Turkey, the government has so far failed to deliver assistance to several areas devastated by two major quakes registering 7.9 and 7.7 on the Richter scale, leaving thousands dead.
⚠️ Confirmed: Real-time network data show Twitter has been restricted in #Turkey; the filtering is applied on major internet providers and comes as the public come to rely on the service in the aftermath of a series of deadly earthquakes
Experts, politicians and people criticised the ban, saying that Twitter was the main source of communications for many people searching for survivors and victims as well as for local and nationwide aid campaigns.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, CHP said they will continue to use Twitter with VPN. “I told my friends in the field to use VPN for cooperation coordination. This insane … the government cut off social media communication,” Kilicdaroglu said.
His anger is shared by many people. “By restricting Twitter at this time, you are preventing or delaying help from reaching people who can reach it. You are killing people on purpose,” Ali Gul, a lawyer and activist, wrote on Twitter.
According to official figures, at least 8,574 people lost their lives, more than 49,000 people were injured and thousands of buildings were destroyed in the quakes.
President Erdogan visited quake-hit cities on Wednesday and asked for patience from people due to the government’s slow response.
Twitter is reported to have suspended the accounts of at least 16 political figures in Serbia, all of them either members of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party or holders of senior state posts.
Political rights NGO CRTA on Friday named 13 ruling party MPs whose accounts have been suspended – Nevena Djuric, Sandra Bozic, Milica Nikolic, Jelena Obradovic, Aleksandar Markovic, Krsto Janjusevic, Dusan Radojevic, Jelena Zaric Kovacevic, Aleksandra Tomic, Stasa Stojanovic, Zoran Tomic, Andrijana Vasic and Olja Petrovic.
Twitter also suspended the accounts of Miroslav Cuckovic, the newly appointed Belgrade City Manager, and Slavisa Micanovic, a member of the Serbian Progressive Party’s main and executive boards.
The account of Arnaud Gouillon, head of the Foreign Ministry’s Office for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region, has been suspended too. Gouillon is a French national, founder of the organisation Solidarité Kosovo.
According to screen shots that Gouillon and MP Stasa Stojanovic posted online, they were suspended for breaking Twitter’s rules and were not be able to post new content or to ‘like’ anything.
Stojanovic said on Instagram that she does not know why her Twitter account was suspended.
“I didn’t enter into any discussions, nor did I insult anyone, nor did I do anything bad, especially not there [on Twitter], there I mostly retweet, share and like [Serbian Progressive] party things, things that happen in our country, and above all beautiful things, about art, about culture,” Stojanovic said.
Gouillon implied in a message posted on Facebook that he was suspended over his comment about an opinion survey about whether people in Serbia think the country’s former province of Kosovo “is lost”.
“Twitter just suspended my account where I had 34,000 followers, without explanation! It’s scandalous! Look at my last tweet and decide for yourself if I wrote something wrong,” Gouillon wrote.
This is the third year in a row that Twitter has either down or added warning messages to accounts in Serbia.
In August 2021, Twitter labelled a number of well-known newspapers and TV stations in Serbia as media over whose editorial content the state exercises control “through financial resources and direct or indirect political pressures”.
In April 2020, Twitter removed almost 8,558 accounts that it said were “working to promote Serbia’s ruling party”, the Serbian Progressive Party.
Anonymous accounts advertising transfers of people from Albania to the United Kingdom have spiked on TikTok using the route called English Channel, which smugglers are believed to use, according to media reports.
After reviewing dozens of accounts on TikTok, BIRN saw two kind of adverts: one for people who want to go to the UK from France on boats and the other for people crossing to the UK from Belgium in trucks. Prices published on the site range from 2,000 to 5,000 pounds sterling.
The advertisements comes from different TikTok accounts and offer different levels of engagement. Some publish the prices while others invite the public to contact them privately.
“…to England. 4,000 pounds. With boats. Every day”, reads one of the posts.
“…to London. (It`s) 100% sure, no chances of failures. These are the best prices in the market”, says another.
Another post advertising crossings to the UK in trucks says: “Departure for England in every two days. The best prices”.
Some of the posts have more than 200 likes. Most of the accounts reviewed were created this year, some of them in July, while others were created in the beginning of the year. There are also accounts opened only a few hours ago. Most of the posts publish also dates of departures.
One of them reads: “Departures everyday, the next departure is tomorrow on 22 July. We can take families also. You come today and leave tomorrow. We are the first and the best (for boats)” adding that they give 100% guarantees for the crossing. The post has 2,706 likes and 52 comments.
A report by the British tabloid Daily Mail quoting UK military intelligence documents claims that four in 10 recent illegal migrants to Britain are from Albania.
“The explosive document – marked ‘Official Sensitive’ – shows that almost three times as many migrants arriving on the UK’s shores from France come from the Balkan country compared with anywhere else. It is the first time that an official report has exposed how the largest proportion of those making illegal crossings appear to be economic migrants abusing Britain’s generous asylum system,” the Mail said, adding that nine criminal gangs handle the crossings from France to UK. The quoted report is not published.
The report reveals that of the 2,863 migrants transported by nine separate people-smuggling gangs between June 1 and July 12, 1,075 – or 37.5 per cent – were Albanian.
Other media, such as Britain`s News Channel have reported that the smuggling gangs use social networks such as TikTok to advertise the crossings and invite people to go to the UK.
Last year, Albania’s Ministry of Justice and UK Justice Minister Chris Philip signed a Prisoner Transfer Agreement in London in late July under which Albanian prisoners in the UK can be returned to Albania and banned from entering the UK again.
The agreement started to be implemented this year and is ongoing, with some of Albanian prisoners being returned to Albania.
Also in July last year, the UK and Albania signed a separate agreement regulating the removal of Albanians illegally residing in the UK.
In October 2020, BIRN published an investigation into the routes taken and money paid by Albanians to enter the UK illegally. The story identified six main routes: Calais to Dover by lorry; by lorry from the Netherlands; by lorry from Belgium; by ferry from Spain; by plane from Italy or Greece; and by plane from Italy to the UK via Dublin.
Another BIRN investigation published in June 2019 looked at how Albanian gangs in the UK recruit illegal immigrants from Albania’s remote, mountainous north, where poverty is rife.
A new set of laws, which includes 40 articles, was represented to Turkey’s parliament on Thursday, aiming to increase government control over the internet, media and social media.
The law was prepared by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, AKP and its far-right partner, the Nationalist Movement Party, MHP.
The new law, which is expected to pass soon, for the first time defines the crime of “spreading misinformation on purpose”.
It criminalises “a person who publicly disseminates false information regarding internal and external security, public order and the general health of the country, in a way that is suitable for disturbing the public peace, simply for the purpose of creating anxiety, fear or panic among the people”, the draft law explains.
According to the proposed law, persons who spread misinformation may be jailed for one to three years. If the court decides that the person spread misinformation as part of an illegal organisation, the jail sentence will be increased by 50 per cent.
Journalists may also be charged under this new law if they use anonymous sources for hiding the identity of the person who spreads the misinformation.
The draft law was condemned by experts and journalists’ unions.
Journalists unions in a written statement on Friday, including the Journalists’ Union of Turkey, TGS, the Journalists’ Association and the International Press Institute’s Turkey Committee, said that, “concerned that it may lead to one of the most severe censorship and self-censorship mechanisms in the history of the republic, we call for the immediate withdrawal of this bill, which seems to have been designed to increase the pressure on journalism, not ‘fight against disinformation”.
The new law also allows internet media to register as periodical media publications. This will allow internet media to enjoy some of the benefits of traditional media, such as advertising and press cards, but brings more government control.
Internet media will be required to remove “false” content and must archive their publications, and the government may block access to their websites more easily.
“On the request of the ministries, the President [of the Information and Communication Technologies Authority] may decide to remove the content and/or block access to be fulfilled within four hours regarding broadcasts on the internet,” the new law said, citing national security and public order.
It also creates new regulations on official press cards, after Turkey’s Council of State, the highest administrative legal authority in the country, cancelled the previous law in April, 2021, citing risks to press freedom.
The regulations created by the Communications Directorate, which is under the control of the presidency, allowed the government to cancel the press cards of journalists seen as unfriendly to the authorities, critics claimed.
Since they were introduced, a large number of independent journalists have had their press cards cancelled or their applications for renewal denied.
However, the new law brings little change, beyond creating a new board to decide on press cards. The Press Card Commission will have nine members, which will include government officials, academics and journalists’ unions but five members will come from the Communications Directorate, holding a decision-making majority.
An online support campaign was launched on Monday after a Kosovo biology teacher was targeted with derogatory comments online after posting videos on TikTok of himself dancing to folk music.
Valon Canhasi, founder of social media agency Hallakate, posted a video of himself dancing to Albanian folk music at his office on Monday and urged others to follow suit to support teacher Lulzim Paci after critics claimed that his actions were inappropriate for an educator.
“I invite all of you to make a video dancing in your office or in your home,” Canhasi wrote on Facebook as he initiated a folk-dance ‘challenge’ under the hashtag #profachallenge.
Teacher Paci, from the town of Vushtrri/Vucitrn, was subjected to sustained criticism on social media after he posted several videos of his folk dances.
Among the critics was ruling Vetevendosje party MP, Fjolla Ujkani, who called on the high school director and the Vushtrri/Vucitrn Education Directorate to fire Pacik for “improper and degenerate acts”, which she claimed contravened the duty of a teacher to instill values in young people.
However Ujkani made a public apology on Monday evening in a Facebook post in which she explained that she had been a student at the high school at which Paci teaches and said “my reaction was aimed at the protection and well-being of the students, and in any case the preservation and protection of the credibility of the school”, but that she did not intend to cause harm to anyone.
In an interview with Kosovo media outlet Koha, Paci tearfully explained how the online harassment he has endured since posting the videos caused him to tell his brother to deny that they are related to avoid embarrassment, and instead to say that “[Lulzim] is my cousin”.
Supporters of Paci argued that he has the right to use his private social media accounts to publish videos of himself dancing, which do not harm anyone.
Kosovo-based media lawyer Flutura Kusari said that “freedom of expression guarantees the teacher the right to publish videos from a private environment”.
After Canhasi posted his video and launched the #profachallenge, a series of Kosovo Albanians including celebrities, politicians and teachers from various regions of the country posted videos of themselves dancing to Albanian folk songs.
Famous Kosovo singer Dafina Zeqiri responded by making a video of herself dancing with the teacher, Paci, and posting it on her TikTok account.
Actress Adriana Matoshi, known for her roles in films such as ‘Zana’ and ‘Martesa’ (‘The Marriage’), who is now an MP from the ruling Vetevendosje party, also recorded a video.
“Don’t stop dancing for anyone… You have done nothing wrong to anyone,” Matoshi wrote on Instagram.
The challenge reached Albania as well, where the first lady and leader of the Socialist Movement for Integration, LSI opposition party, Monika Kryemadhi, also posted a video of herself dancing.
Thousands of women and girls in Serbia have shared experiences about the sexual violence they have suffered under under the hashtag #NisamPrijavila (“I didn’t report”), with more than 18,000 tweets by Monday morning, less than 40 hours since the initial tweet on the subject by an opposition activist Nina Stojakovic was posted on Saturday.
Stojakovic on December 25 tweeted accusations of systematic violence by her sister’s ex-boyfriend, a Serbian rapper known as Numero, after which thousands of girls responded with their own stories about why it is hard or impossible to report such crimes, since those close to them fear to do so and state institutions do not respond.
In the series of initial Tweets that launched the avalanche Stojkovic said Uros Radivojevic “Numero” had harassed and physically and psychologically abused his then girlfriend for a year-and-a-half. Due to that experience, her sister Lidija even tried to commit suicide, Stojkovic said.
After these attacks and harassment “put her in the hospital for week, some new therapists saw the bite marks, bruises, torn lips … [but] why they did not call the police I don’t know,” she wrote in a tweet.
“I am angered by the neighbours who listened to this brutal violence for nights and did not call the police but just complained to the landlord about the noise. I am angry at the system that do not gives any support to women beaten by their male partners,” Stojkovic tweeted, adding that her sister did not report the attacks immediately because she was terrified and suffering from depression.
Numero has since shut down all his social media accounts and refuses to answer media questions on the matter. “I don’t want to give any statements. It’s a chaos,“ he told the Telegraf tabloid.
After this another of his ex-girfriends has said he did the similar things with her.
„His closest friends knew about it because I approached them, as did my parents, my friends, the police, and the psychiatrist. As a result of that relationship, I suffered from anxiety disorder as well as panic attacks anywhere in public, physical injuries, bruises, split lips, hair loss and worst of all, [loss of] myself and my personality,” she wrote on Twitter.
The tweets have prompted thousands of women and girls in Serbia to write about their own experience and why is it hard to report these crimes, mostly blaming lack of support or relativization and disinterest by the police.
Actress Danijela Steinfeld, who this year publicly accused actor Branislav Lecic of raping her in 2012, also joined the campaign, revealing her own reasons for not going to the police immediately.
“I didn’t report it the morning after the rape, because I was broken, and I wouldn’t survive their disbelief and condemnation. When I spoke, and was forced to participate in pre-trial proceedings, despite a handful of evidence, the same thing happened. Only, now they can’t break me,” Steinfeld wrote.
The prosecution in July this year dismissed her criminal complaint saying there were no grounds for suspicion that the well-known actor committed the crime.
The violations recorded in the second half of October show that routine digital violations are not disappearing. Hate speech, discrimination and war-mongering flourish in Bosnia’s digital environment, and, following the introduction of a new decree by the President of the Serb-led entity, Republika Srpska, digital violations have accelerated further.
Local elections in Hungary and North Macedonia, where ruling parties suffered setbacks, also caused a rise in violations, triggered by a climate of political antagonism.
Finally, in Serbia and Romania, the presence of unsolved issues at home resulted in the resurgence of the one and the same violations.
Hate Speech and War-mongering Rhetoric Poison Bosnia
With 45 violations recorded in our database out of a total of 101 cases between August 1, 2020, and August 31, 2021, hate speech and discrimination remain the most widespread form of violation in the Bosnian digital environment.
Zeljka Cvijanovic (L) speaks during the 29th Economic Forum in Krynica-Zdroj, southern Poland, 03 September 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE/GRZEGORZ MOMOT POLAND OUT
Following recent developments, including the entry into force of a presidential decree from Zeljka Cvijanovic, head of Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity, Republika Srpska, aimed at not complying with a state law banning the denial of genocide and war crimes, there has been a further acceleration in hate speech and war-mongering rhetoric in the country.
Two hate speech and warmongering incidents were recorded in the second half of October. After the release of a video on Twitter on October 22 from the online news outlet Istraga, several comments inciting ethnic hatred and war propaganda showed up. Footage had showed Dragan Lukač, RS Minister of Interior, with members of the RS special forces doing exercises in Jahorina.
The second case involved Muhamed Velic, a Muslim cleric in Sarajevo, who called for war on his Facebook page, garnering 2,200 likes and 60 shares. The post, published on October 16 and later removed, said: “Ammunition in Konjic and Gorazde! Howitzers in Travnik! RPGs in Hadžići! Etc. Trust yourself and your hooves! They know that this is not a joke and that Bosnian might is not a small cat!” The message, which was then shared on Twitter by Bosnia’s consul in Frankfurt, Admir Atović, forced the country’s Foreign Ministry to intervene and seek urgent clarifications from him.
Hungarian Opposition Primaries Prompt Flow of Digital Violations
The 2021 Hungarian opposition primary, held in two rounds between September 18 and October 16, featured a harsh political confrontation between opposition candidates and the ruling Fidesz party. The stakes were high: to choose the challenger against Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in next year’s parliamentary elections. After the second round of the primary, voters elected Peter Marki-Zay, the conservative mayor of Hódmezővásárhely, to lead the opposition into the 2022 parliamentary election.
Hungarian opposition leader Peter Marki-Zay gives an international press conference at Brussels Press club, Belgium, 11 November 2021. Marki-Zay was nominated as a candidate by six-party opposition alliance formed specifically to oust Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in next year’s election. Photo: EPA-EFE/OLIVIER HOSLET
Before and during the primaries, a series of cyberattacks were carried out. The opposition asked Ferenc Frész, a senior cyber defence expert, to investigate the causes and origins of these DDoS attacks. The aftermath of the election after the second round was also a breeding ground for online violations. Three independent media outlets were attacked on announcing the primary election results. The pro-government website, Origo, was also repeatedly hit by DDoS attacks between October 22 and 24, making the site inaccessible. Internal investigations suggested that unknown individuals externally attacked the website. In the final days of the primaries, strange advertisements, apparently promoting the main opposition candidate, appeared in the news feeds of several Hungarian Facebook users, claiming that Márki-Zay was building a “new Fidesz” party. The messages quoted and distorted many of his statements on subjects like the corporal punishment of children.
Another incident recorded in our database involved the temporary suspension and unavailability of Valasz.hu, a website storing the complete archive of Heti Válasz, a conservative weekly established by Fidesz in 2001 and shut down in June 2018, after Lajos Simicska, a business magnate close to Orban, bought its publisher. As reported earlier by BIRN, Hungary remains a critical country in terms of the role of genuinely independent media. Members of Orban’s closest circle now own almost 88 media outlets.
Interference in North Macedonia’s Election Alleged, COVID Certificates Hacked
A woman votes at the polling station in Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia, 17 October 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE/GEORGI LICOVSKI
In the second half of October, political confrontation worsened in North Macedonia following two rounds of local elections on October 17 and 31. As Balkan Insight reported, the elections were of crucial significance, as the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party, for the first time since 2017, re-established itself as the dominant political force, also declaring that it now had the strength in parliament to lead a government.
On October 24, Stevcho Jakimovski, leader of the Citizen Option for Macedonia Party GROM and a candidate in the local elections for the municipality of Karpos, claimed that Chinese troll farms targeted his Facebook profile. He called on political rivals to behave ethically and not engage in such campaigns during the election. GROM, in coalition with VMRO-DPMNE at national level, ran alone in the Karpos mayoral race. On October 29, as our new focus page on COVID-19 Crisis and Tech Response reported, the Ministry of Health withdrew its EU digital certificates and QR codes, following a hacker attack.
Users of a forum said the hackers, who broke into the system and started issuing QR codes, using data from Macedonian citizens, penetrated the unprotected Macedonian server, from where they managed to get the key to the codes. IT.mk, a Macedonian information technology portal, showed how easy it was to bypass the national health system and has shared several posts of Twitter users with valid certificates, issued for Adolf Hitler, Sponge Bob and other dead or fictitious characters.
COVID-19 Fake News and Online Harassment Persist in Romania
Following a global trend, Romania’s digital environment is experiencing a rise in fake news, misinformation, and other manipulative content on the COVID-19 pandemic. Romania’s online space also continued to record a high number of episodes of misogyny towards women, especially those working in education. For instance, on January 6, a former presidential candidate and TikTok influencer, Alexandru Cumpanasu, was arrested for sending comments of a sexual nature, and instigating hatred and discrimination, against teachers and professors. Some violations that occurred in October confirm this trend in Romania’s digital environment.
On October 19, Piatra Neamț County Police opened a criminal investigation into the spread of false information after a woman streamed herself on Facebook in front of a critical care ward, where COVID patients were being treated in Piatra Neamț, north-east Romania. The woman, filming from a distance, claimed that “there is no one” inside the clinic, suggesting the pandemic was fiction. The video also became known thanks to a Facebook post of Oana Gheorghiu, cofounder of the NGO Dăruiește Viață, who immediately reported the incident.
A Romanian woman gets a Pfizer vaccine dose from a volunteer nurse, at a Covid-19 Marathon Vaccination For Life center organized at Children Palace venue in Bucharest, Romania, 22 October 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE/ROBERT GHEMENT
A second case concerned Florentina Golea, a schoolteacher who was harassed after posting photos on Facebook while teaching a class of 12-year-old girls on the importance of vaccination. On October 5, RO vaccinare, the official page of the National Committee for Vaccination, promoting the vaccination campaign in Romania, shared photos from the teacher’s profile on Facebook. After that, the teacher received hundreds of insulting comments via Facebook, from “profiteer” and “be ashamed” to “monster” and “criminal”. The teacher also received death threats from people who claimed to know where she lived and the address of her school in Tecuci, in Galați County. Sorin Cîmpeanu, Minister of Education, announced that he would support the teacher if she sued those who had harassed her on Facebook.
COVID-19 Manipulation and Threats to Journalists in Serbia
Manipulation, conspiracy theories and other fake news have spread fast in Serbia’s online environment, where most cases still seem to be linked to the COVID pandemic.
The logo of the messaging application Viber pictured on a smartphone. Photo: EPA/RITCHIE B. TONGO
Recently, a case was uncovered where some citizens were wrongly prescribed anti-parasite treatment for COVID via a Viber group. At the same time, alarmingly, Serbia stands out as one of the countries with the most attacks on independent journalists. Between August 1, 2020, and August 31, 2021, 30 out of a total of 111 such cases targeted journalists. BIRN editor and investigative journalist Ivana Jeremić was threatened by a Twitter user last December 2.
The latest cases recorded by our monitoring team confirm this trend in the Serbian digital space.
On October 10, after Serbian virologist Ana Banko stated on Radio Television of Serbia RTS that vaccinated citizens can transmit the Delta strain of the coronavirus, part of her statement was spread on social media with the intention of manipulating her words. The video shared by many users, together with the title, took the sentence out of context, leading readers to the wrong conclusion. The virologist was answering a series of questions on a talk show, and her intention was not to diminish the effects of the vaccine but only to emphasize the speed of transmission of the new Delta variant.
On October 21, meanwhile, online threats targeted two Serbian journalists, Jovana Gligorijević and Snežana Čongradin, the historian Dubravka Stojanović and the literary critic, Jelena Lalatović.
The threats, which have been condemned by the Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia, were misogynistic and anti-feminist, and were posted from an anonymous Twitter account. This is not the first-time threats have been sent from this account. A year ago, the journalist Vesna Mališić was also threatened by the same profile, which called for a lynch and her murder.
We would like to hear from parents and teachers willing to share their experience with us to help in an upcoming investigation into the safety of children and young teenagers using TikTok.
Scroll down for more information about how to take part.
The key things we want to know:
What steps did parents take to protect their children and young teenagers on the platform?
Were there any cases in which children and young teenagers were the targets of bullying, identity theft, privacy issues etc.?
If/how the potential danger in the digital environment is harming their childrens’ physical safety?
What do teachers know about the network and how do they educate children about it?
We will not publish any documents or names without prior consent and we do not plan to use specific examples, but rather show more general systemic problems. Your responses are secure and encrypted.
Your stories will be used to help us with an ongoing investigation.
A new report published by international rights organisation Freedom House on Tuesday says that global internet freedom has declined for the 11th consecutive year.
“More governments arrested users for nonviolent political, social, or religious speech than ever before. Officials suspended internet access in at least 20 countries, and 21 states blocked access to social media platforms,” says the report entitled Freedom on the Net 2021.
The report highlights how countries seeking to restrict users’ rights have clashed with technology companies. One of them was Turkey, which the report lists as ‘not free’.
“It is possible to see increasing digital pressure in the last ten years in the report. This report shows us that the space of freedom is declining not only in Turkey but also around the world,” Gurkan Ozturan, Media Freedom Rapid Response Coordinator at the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, who and one of the authors of the report, told BIRN.
Turkey’s digital rights law, which came into effect in October 2020, says that platforms with over a million daily users are required to remove content deemed “offensive” by the Turkish authorities within 48 hours of being notified, or risk escalating penalties including fines, advertising bans, and limitations on bandwidth.
“The law reduced social media companies’ ability to resist requests from Turkish authorities that are designed to further censor opposition voices, independent journalism, and nonviolent expression,” the report says.
The report also highlights problems with online freedoms in Hungary and Serbia, although both countries are listed as being ‘free’.
It says that pro-government commentators manipulate online discussions in Turkey, Serbia and Hungary.
Blogger or internet users have been arrested or imprisoned, or held in prolonged detention, for posting political or social material in Turkey and Serbia, the report says.
Some have been physically attacked in Turkey, where government critics and human rights organisations have been subjected to technical attacks.
Meanwhile, as the booming surveillance industry has allowed governments around the world to monitor private communications, the report points out that Hungary is one of the countries where spyware has allegedly been used against journalists.
“Pegasus spyware compromised the phones of two investigative journalists who reported on corruption and the Hungarian government’s relations with foreign states,” the report says.
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