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Photo: Frankfurt uz studente<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Week #04<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the final weeks before the election, the rules of voting itself have become the main subject: who votes, when, and from which voter register. The authorities say that the electoral process is in order, while stories about the diaspora, the voter register, and a list of \u201cblockaders\u201d from \u010ca\u010dak have been carried almost exclusively by independent media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fourth week of election-campaign monitoring covers the period from 5 to 11 October. We collected 30,831 articles from 25 monitored online media outlets. On social media, we analyzed 132,281 posts from TikTok, Instagram, and X that the platforms\u2019 algorithms showed to ten simulated users. Based on the content they receive, we group these users each week into four feed clusters: pro-government, pro-opposition, pro-student, and undecided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In online media, the week opened with the Republic Electoral Commission\u2019s decision that voting abroad would take place according to local time in Serbia, meaning that voters in North America and Australia would cast their ballots in the middle of the night. The Student List filed an objection, followed by a protest outside the Republic Electoral Commission. In Ni\u0161, Vu\u010di\u0107 accused supporters of the Student List of attacking an SNS activist, the third case of violence against a woman in three weeks to become a central message of the authorities. At the same time, pro-government outlets carried several claims that were not supported by the original quotations and statements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On social media, the electoral process was the main topic in all feed clusters except the pro-government one, and the call for a protest outside the Republic Electoral Commission was the only image of the week that reached three of the four clusters. In the pro-government feed of one simulated user, a fourth account from the same family of anonymous pro-government profiles took first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We recorded five cases involving digital rights and freedoms, including the publication of a list containing the personal data of citizens of \u010ca\u010dak and a warning that state-backed attackers were targeting the email accounts of a political party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n