Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Hungary's spyware scandal is a crisis for Europe
Source: Washington Post
Hungary’s spyware scandal is a crisis for Europe
By Ishaan Tharoor
Columnist
Today at 12:00 a.m. EDT
excerpt from the Today’s WorldView newsletter
Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, was already seen as a boogeyman stalking the West. In nearly a dozen years in power, he has transformed his nation’s fledgling liberal democracy into a thorn in the side of the European Union. Critics accuse Orban of presiding over a “post-communist mafia state,” where the media is dominated by his allies, the courts are stacked with his loyalists, the electoral map gerrymandered in favor of his right-wing Fidesz party and a network of kleptocratic patronage traces its way back to the prime minister.
Then there’s his politics: Orban styles himself as the continent’s great illiberal and grandstands ceaselessly over the perceived evils of immigration, multiculturalism, feminism and European integration. He has at various times been accused of peddling anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobia and anti-Roma sentiment. A new Hungarian anti-LGBTQ law so incensed Orban’s European counterparts that Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte declared at a recent meeting of E.U. leaders that Hungary should leave the bloc if it can’t respect gay rights. As is his wont, Orban scoffed at the moral scolding, decrying Rutte’s “colonial approach.”
-snip-
Of the 37 smartphones that investigative reporters determined were targeted by the Pegasus spyware — which functions invisibly and can be used for myriad purposes, including reading the target’s messages and emails, tracking their movements, secretly turning on the phone’s camera and eavesdropping on their calls — at least five belonged to individuals in Hungary. Moreover, more than 300 Hungarian phone numbers appeared on a list of about 50,000 smartphone numbers that included some selected for surveillance using Pegasus, the technology developed by NSO and licensed to foreign governments.
Hungary finds itself in notable company. The kingdom of Morocco and the world’s largest democracy in India are among those now under scrutiny for seemingly using this technology on journalists. (Both countries have said all surveillance is in compliance with their respective laws.) For Budapest, the situation may lead to another showdown with Brussels, as its apparent use of these surveillance methods make “a mockery of the far-reaching digital privacy protections the European Union has enacted,” my colleagues wrote.
“Although the Hungarian numbers represent a small portion of the total, they stand out because Hungary is a member of the European Union, where privacy is supposed to be a fundamental right and core societal value, and where safeguards for journalists, opposition politicians and lawyers are theoretically strong,” they explained. ...
-snip-
By Ishaan Tharoor
Columnist
Today at 12:00 a.m. EDT
excerpt from the Today’s WorldView newsletter
Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, was already seen as a boogeyman stalking the West. In nearly a dozen years in power, he has transformed his nation’s fledgling liberal democracy into a thorn in the side of the European Union. Critics accuse Orban of presiding over a “post-communist mafia state,” where the media is dominated by his allies, the courts are stacked with his loyalists, the electoral map gerrymandered in favor of his right-wing Fidesz party and a network of kleptocratic patronage traces its way back to the prime minister.
Then there’s his politics: Orban styles himself as the continent’s great illiberal and grandstands ceaselessly over the perceived evils of immigration, multiculturalism, feminism and European integration. He has at various times been accused of peddling anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobia and anti-Roma sentiment. A new Hungarian anti-LGBTQ law so incensed Orban’s European counterparts that Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte declared at a recent meeting of E.U. leaders that Hungary should leave the bloc if it can’t respect gay rights. As is his wont, Orban scoffed at the moral scolding, decrying Rutte’s “colonial approach.”
-snip-
Of the 37 smartphones that investigative reporters determined were targeted by the Pegasus spyware — which functions invisibly and can be used for myriad purposes, including reading the target’s messages and emails, tracking their movements, secretly turning on the phone’s camera and eavesdropping on their calls — at least five belonged to individuals in Hungary. Moreover, more than 300 Hungarian phone numbers appeared on a list of about 50,000 smartphone numbers that included some selected for surveillance using Pegasus, the technology developed by NSO and licensed to foreign governments.
Link to tweet
Hungary finds itself in notable company. The kingdom of Morocco and the world’s largest democracy in India are among those now under scrutiny for seemingly using this technology on journalists. (Both countries have said all surveillance is in compliance with their respective laws.) For Budapest, the situation may lead to another showdown with Brussels, as its apparent use of these surveillance methods make “a mockery of the far-reaching digital privacy protections the European Union has enacted,” my colleagues wrote.
“Although the Hungarian numbers represent a small portion of the total, they stand out because Hungary is a member of the European Union, where privacy is supposed to be a fundamental right and core societal value, and where safeguards for journalists, opposition politicians and lawyers are theoretically strong,” they explained. ...
-snip-
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/07/20/hungary-spyware-democracy/