Amid a decline in democratic standards, the Serbian government uses large-scale installation of surveillance systems with facial recognition technology to monitor opponents, activists and journalists (balkaninsight.com)

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cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/375357

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/373442

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Here is the report (pdf).

Serbian authorities have adopted invasive surveillance practices and facial recognition technology to monitor political opponents, civic activists and critical journalists, says a BIRN report entitled ‘Digital Surveillance in Serbia – A Threat to Human Rights?’, published on Friday.

Equipment from Chinese manufacturers, such as Dahua and Hickvision, predominates.

Serbia’s aspirations for EU membership mean that it faces pressure to adhere to EU standards on data protection and privacy as well as cybersecurity. However, Serbia has simultaneously strengthened ties with authoritarian countries, especially China and Russia.

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[-] onlinepersona@programming.dev 13 points 2 days ago

The West was laughing and pointing at China. "Look at them surveilling their citizens! So cringe." Meanwhile, people massively bought into surveillance capitalism, gobbled up all the bullshit about "if you have nothing to hide", and look where it's taking us. Yet people continue to buy Google products, swear that Malus won't ever be evil and store their lives on iPhones and Macs, they vote for right-wing candidates who talk about building walls, surveilling the poor, foreign, and different, and don't somehow fail to see how their countries are slowly becoming more China-like.

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[-] DarkThoughts@fedia.io 7 points 2 days ago

Calling Serbia "the West" is kinda stupid considering they're friends with "the East" and fail to adhere to any sort of EU law. And shit like this is precisely why Serbia will never join the EU, as this type of practice has been basically outlawed a while ago.

[-] onlinepersona@programming.dev 2 points 2 days ago

Mate, "the West" isn't limited to Western Europe, the USA, Canada, and Australia. Australia is the same longitude as China. Are you going to say it's not the West because of that?

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[-] DarkThoughts@fedia.io 5 points 2 days ago

No, I'm not. And me pointing out Serbia's allegiance should've been clue enough to understand that. The West is a collective of a shared understanding of values, values that Serbia does not share. So please stop being willfully obtuse.

[-] onlinepersona@programming.dev 1 points 2 days ago

You believing Serbia is part of "the East" is hilarious. They're the S in BRICS, right? 😂

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[-] DarkThoughts@fedia.io 5 points 2 days ago

You're continuing to make a fool out of yourself dude. BRICS and "the East" are not synonymous. But yes, there are also potential talks about Serbia joining BRICS.