COVID-19 pandemic adversely affects digital rights in the Balkans

Cases of arbitrary arrests, surveillance, phone tapping, privacy breaches and other digital rights violations have drastically increased in Central and Southeast Europe as governments started imposing emergency legislation to combat the COVID-19 outbreak. Belgrade-based Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) and the digital rights organization SHARE Foundation have started a blog titled “Digital Rights in the Time of COVID-19” documenting these developments.

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, some governments across Europe are enhancing surveillance, increasing censorship, and restricting the free flow of information. In many cases, the government-imposed
restrictions flouted human rights standards. But they seldom truly protect digital rights. In the Balkans, as
mentioned above, incidents of digital rights violations have steadily increased. Bojan Perkov, policy researcher at the SHARE Foundation, wrote a summary of their findings, noting the following:

“The information gathered by the two organizations so far shows that the most problematic [violations] are, essentially, multiple issues involving the privacy of people who are put under quarantine, the spread of disinformation and the dangerous misconceptions regarding the virus in the online and social media
networks, as well as the increase of internet scams.”

The data gathered by the two organizations through the blog’s database feature indicate that in just over the last two weeks, 80 people have been arrested, some of them jailed, for spreading fake news and  disinformation, with the most draconian examples in Turkey, Serbia, Hungary and Montenegro.

One such noteworthy example occurred in the Serbian city of Novi Sad where Nova,rs journalist Ana Lalić
was arrested for “upsetting the public.” Lalić had published an article describing the chaotic conditions of the
Clinical Center of Vojvodina, their “chronic lack of equipment” and under-preparedness. It was the Center who then filed the complaint against her and which led to her 48-hour sentence. Her arrest provoked the reaction from organisations across Europe like EDRi member Article 19 or Freedom House.

Governments in Montenegro and Moldova made public the personal health data of people infected with COVID-19, while official websites and hospital computer systems suffered cyber-attacks in Croatia and Romania. Some countries like Slovakia are considering lifting rights enshrined under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), while Serbia imposed surveillance and phone tracking to limit freedom of
movement.

Potentially infected citizens have been obliged to submit to new forms of control by law. In Serbia since the
declaration of a state of emergency was declared and all citizens arriving from abroad must undergo quarantine. During a March 19 press conference, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić stated that the
police is “following” Italian telephone numbers, checking which citizens use roaming and constantly tracking their locations. This was specifically aimed at members of the Serbian diaspora who returned from Italy and are supposed to self-isolate in their homes. He also warned the people who leave their phones behind
that the state has “another way” of tracking them if they violate quarantine, but didn’t explain the method.

In neighboring Montenegro, the National Coordination Body for Infectious Diseases decided to publish the names and surnames of people who must undergo quarantine online, after it determined that certain persons violated the measure, and as a result “exposing the whole Montenegro to risk.” Civic alliance challenged
this measure through a complaint submitted to the Constitutional Court of Montenegro.

In Croatia, concerned citizens developed a website samoizolacija.hr (meaning “Self-isolation”), which allegedly enabled anyone to anonymously report quarantine violators to the police. The site was been subsequently shut down, and the Ministry of Interior initiated criminal investigations against suspected violators of privacy rights.

Crisis Headquarters of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina issued a recommendation on how
to publish the personal data of citizens who violate the prevention measures, as government institutions at cantonal and local level started publishing data about people in isolation and self-isolation, including lists of people identified as infected by the coronavirus.

In response, on March 24, the Personal Data Protection Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina issued a decision
forbidding the publication of personal data of citizens tested positive for the coronavirus or those subjected to
isolation and self-isolation measures.

Perkov also raised the issue of whether these measures are effective, in particular because this puts people in danger. In Montenegro, infected people whose identities were revealed on social networks, have been subjected to hate speech.

“Furthermore, is the idea behind such measures the public shaming of people who disrespect the obligation for self-isolation or the reduction of number of violations? The criteria of proportionality and necessity
have not been properly respected and their adequacy had not been justified.”

The above cases of publication of health data online involve direct violation of the laws that designate them as protected at the highest legal level. In other words, these violations go against laws of the highest order that protect fundamental rights in the digital environment, and they are doing so under the guise of the COVID-19 crisis response, as if it were an open invitation to break the rules of free and protected societies.

Read more:

Digital Rights in the time of COVID-19 (23.03.2020)
https://bird.tools/mapping-digital-rights-during-coronavirus-outbreak/

Serbian government revokes controversial COVID-19-related decree used as pretext to arrests journalists (02.04.2020)
https://globalvoices.org/2020/04/07/serbian-government-revokes-controversial-covid-19-related-decree-used-as-pretext-to-arrests-journalists/

Europe’s other Coronavirus victim: information and data rights (24.03.2020)
https://balkaninsight.com/2020/03/24/europes-other-coronavirus-victim-information-and-data-rights/

Montenegrin Coronavirus patients’ identities exposed online (18.03.2020)
https://bird.tools/montenegrin-coronavirus-patients-identities-exposed-online/

(In Serbian) Vučić: Ne ostavljajte telefone, nećete nas prevariti! ZNAMO da se krećete (19.03.2020)
https://mondo.rs/Info/Drustvo/a1298105/Aleksandar-Vucic-policija-telefonski-brojevi-policijski-sat-upozorenje-krecu-se.html

(In Serbian) Podnijeli inicijativu za ocjenu ustavnosti Odluke NKT-a (23.03.2020)
http://www.rtcg.me/koronavirus/crnagora/273340/podnijeli-inicijativu-za-ocjenu-ustavnosti-odluke-nkt-a.html

(Contribution by Filip Stojanovski from EDRi member Metamorphosis)