Tag Archives: Albania

Anticorruption Protests in Central and Eastern Europe: What They Do and How They Can Do More

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The beginning of 2024 was a period of unrest for several Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. In Slovakia, a series of protests erupted over Prime Minister Robert Fico’s plan to weaken the country’s anticorruption infrastructure. Meanwhile, in Albania, demonstrators took to the streets alleging corruption in the cabinet, demanding investigations, seeking the end of retaliatory investigations against opposition figures, and pushing for the ouster of corrupt officials. And journalists in Croatia turned out in masses to protest a whistleblowing law that would make the investigation of misconduct more difficult.

These aren’t the first anticorruption protests in CEE, and they won’t be the last. Over the past decade, citizens in CEE countries have become much more attuned to the problem of corruption and to their governments’ failure to do much about it. The result has been numerous episodes of citizen-based anticorruption movements. But while such movements have great potential for spurring meaningful change, many have proved ineffective. Why is this? Examining past episodes—for example, in Bulgaria, Slovakia, and the Balkans—may help us better understand the conditions under which anticorruption demonstrations succeed. These past episodes offer a few key lessons:

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Albanian Political Leaders Are Using Covert Tactics to Silence Anticorruption Watchdog Groups

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Civil society and investigative journalism have long played key roles in exposing corruption, and many CSOs and media watchdogs—especially newer, younger organizations—now make extensive use of social media platforms to engage with the public. In Albania, for example, relatively new organizations like Nisma Thurje and Faktoje frequently expose instances of corruption via Facebook, one of the most popular social media platforms in Albania. However, corrupt politicians are taking notice of these innovative tactics and finding equally innovative ways to silence their critics. In addition to ongoing efforts to censor the media and harass activists (see, for example, here and here), the Albanian elite has undertaken more clandestine efforts to attack civil society and journalists.

One savvy scheme involves Acromax Media GmBH (Acromax), a German digital rights company owned by two Albanians, which has close ties to Albania’s ruling Socialist Party. Acromax has contracts with over 95% of Albanian television stations, with far-reaching rights to take action on its own initiative against alleged copyright violations. For example, when a civil society group like Nisma Thurje posts a story on Facebook about a politician’s corruption, and includes a link to interviews or clips of the politician’s speeches that were originally broadcast on one of those TV stations, Acromax files a complaint with the social media platform alleging a copyright violation—even though re-sharing public content that clearly displays the original source is common practice around the world and does not meet the definition of copyright infringement. Moreover, Acromax only files such complaints with respect to stories that are critical of the government; pro-government posts, including clips from these same channels, are not flagged as intellectual property infringement by Acromax.

Distressingly, even though the claims of intellectual property infringement seem bogus, Facebook has largely complied with Acromax’s demands to take down content. This may be due in part to the European Union’s recent 2019 Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, Article 17 of which makes content-sharing platforms, not just individual content uploaders, liable for intellectual property violations, which in turn has caused Facebook to employ even more automation to deal with its new legal responsibilities. Unfortunately, the automated algorithms currently in use cannot reliably distinguish genuine copyright infringement from legal re-sharing, and the algorithms are sufficiently complex and opaque that it is very difficult for CSOs to challenge the take-down decisions and get their content reinstated. Acromax has exploited these weaknesses in the system to make legitimate civil society watchdogs look like serial copyright infringers. Indeed, Acromax’s harassment campaign has been so successful that two of Nisma Thurje’s founders had personal social media pages shut down because of complaints from Acromax, and Facebook further labeled Nisma Thurje “a dangerous group” and limited the range of Nisma Thurje’s social media capabilities. The technology giant further warned Nisma Thurje that its page would be shut down entirely if Facebook received even one more copyright infringement claim.

Acromax is a well-tuned operation for squelching civil society watchdogs that threaten to expose government wrongdoing, and may serve as a model for similar censorship efforts. Tackling this problem seems daunting, but these are some concrete steps that various actors—including governments, technology companies, and the civil society groups themselves—can take to address this new kind of assault. Continue reading →

Picking the Wrong Targets: Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj’s Crackdown on Street Vendors Punishes the Victims of Corruption, Not the Perpetrators

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These days if you Google “Tirana,” Albania’s vibrant capital city, you will find a plethora of articles highlighting the city’s rapid transformation and reinvigoration, with much of this positive change attributed to the vision of its young, Western-educated mayor Erion Veliaj. Mr. Veliaj, who took office in 2015 after a career in the NGO world, was a political outsider and rose to power on a wave of hope that he would introduce a new brand of governance—one that included cleaning up entrenched, systemic corruption. Mr. Veliaj frequently emphasized this theme, together with the need for greater accountability more generally. He represents a cohort of young politicians in the region who promise radical change to voters craving leaders truly dedicated to fighting for everyday people instead of special groups and political machines.

Yet despite his professed commitment to clean government, Mr. Veliaj hasn’t been terribly vocal about high-level corruption (including the scandals within his own Socialist party), nor has he done much to address concerns about a lack of transparency in public procurement. Instead, he has focused on going after some of his municipality’s most vulnerable populations, like street vendors (see here). Yes, it’s true that these vendors typically do not have the requisite licenses, and some pay bribes in order to be able to operate. However, these street vendors, who work in the informal economy out of necessity, are hardly the engine of corruption in Tirana and wider Albanian society. Rather than treating the street vendors as criminals, Mr. Veliaj would do better to adopt an alternative strategy that would both protect this vulnerable population by integrating them into the formal economy, and tamp down the associated corruption problems. Continue reading →