Something has happened in Serbia that, for now, we can only dream of here. The website ocisti.net has exposed a system of organised online commenting which, according to Serbian investigative journalists, is linked to Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). No, this isn’t a handful of people with too much time on their hands venting their political frustrations on social media. It is an organised system with assignments, coordinators, shifts and even performance assessments.
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The Serbian weekly Vreme analysed the exposed database linked to the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and found that it contained more than 7,300 users, over 32,000 X accounts and almost 395,000 assigned tasks. The tasks were simple. Like. Share. Comment. Attack an opponent. Create the impression that masses of people agree with what those in power are saying.
Even more interestingly, the investigation found that 1,241 users had logged into the system from the networks of 231 public institutions. As many as 94 per cent of those log-ins took place during working hours, between 7am and 4pm.
Imagine working in the public sector. Your salary is paid from public funds, yet during working hours you help manufacture artificial support for a political party. If the investigative journalists’ findings are correct, the Serbian story is far bigger than ordinary online trolling.
Now we come to Slovenia. Do you remember Kopriva? Alenka Jeraj, who accidentally revealed in 2021 that, alongside her official account, she also used an anonymous profile? At the time, we got a fairly vivid insight into how a politician can appear online as an allegedly entirely ordinary citizen.
Before that, Pod črto and Danes je nov dan investigated a network of fake profiles that spread messages supporting SDS and attacked its critics. They uncovered patterns of coordinated activity, and Twitter later suspended 12 of the prominent profiles. I wrote about it in 2023, when a list of more than 14,000 alleged bots emerged in Serbia. At the time, I wondered how many similar profiles existed here. And who was really behind them.
There is another Slovenian story worth noting, one I came across yesterday and which prompted this piece. National television published an interesting report in which Kristina Hacin plays the leading role. The former journalist and editor of the Svet na Kanalu A programme began working in public relations for SDS in 2023, and is now a public relations adviser in Prime Minister Janez Janša’s office. She shares content in a group of supporters which they are expected to share, like and comment on.
These are not “normal” comments. This is the absolute dregs. The sort of slurry you want to avoid, yet cannot if you are on the opposite side from these patriotic idiots and you use social media.
I am not claiming that Slovenia has the same system as Serbia. Such a claim requires evidence. But I do know that Slovenia needs its own ocisti.net. A platform that would use evidence to expose organised political manipulation, fake identities, links between accounts, as well as information about where these people work and their full names. If they are anonymous online, let them have their five minutes of fame in the real world, so that we at least know who is insulting us, who is threatening us and where that person works.
Because there is a considerable difference between freedom of expression and threats and incitement. Everyone has the right to a political opinion. Everyone has the right to support their party. But the public also has the right to know whether it is reading the genuine views of citizens or coordinated messages from a political propaganda machine.
Above all, it would be interesting to find out who is behind the profiles that, day after day, insult, threaten, try to discredit and try to silence anyone who disagrees with their political agenda.
When you read hundreds of almost identical comments on social media, you are right to wonder how many people genuinely think alike and how many are simply carrying out their daily task. That is precisely the question we should get an answer to. With evidence. Not speculation.