Belgium and the Czech Republic have called for new European Union sanctions to counter Russian influence in the upcoming European elections after several countries discovered early interference, an open letter to the EU leadership showed.

The letter, dated April 16 and signed by Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo and Czech President Peter Fiala, was addressed to the heads of the European Commission, the Council and the European Parliament.

The two leaders say instances of pro-Russian disinformation and interference had already been found in several member states. In particular, Belgian security services unearthed a network inside Belgium that involved cash transfers that took place in part in the Czech Republic.

The network aimed to forge cooperation between pro-Russian politicians at the European Parliament, help elect more pro-Russian candidates and appoint “people active within this network as employees (of newly elected) MEPs (members of parliament).”

  • @freedomPusherEnglish
    2•2 months ago

    I would also like to see Belgium take action against its own political parties who allow Cloudflare to block some demographics of voters from seeing election info. These political parties are running exclusive websites:

    • PS/Vooruit (Socialist / Parti Socialiste [fr/nl])
    • Défi (previously part of the MR, now more at the center [fr])
    • CD & V (center / Christen Democratisch en Vlaams [nl])
    • Groen (Green Party [nl])
    • Open VLD (liberal [nl])
    • @RunawayFixer@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2•2 months ago

      Which demographics are being blocked?

      I can enter their websites just fine from an anonymous browser and I’m not in Belgium atm.

      • @freedomPusherEnglish
        1•2 months ago

        Cloudflare is not transparent about who they block. They essentially (and falsely) say they only block baddies, in so many words. A list of groups found to be marginalized can be found here:

        https://thefreeworld.noblogs.org/post/2024/03/18/cloudflare-has-created-the-largest-most-rigidly-exclusive-walled-garden-in-the-world/

        A consequence of the non-transparency is that the list is inherently incomplete. Certainly if you use Ungoogled Chromium to reach the websites of those parties over the Tor network, you will be blocked hard and fast (not even a CAPTCHA offer).

        For example:

        • @RunawayFixer@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3•2 months ago

          Those sites do need ddos protection, so it’s no surprise that they use a very popular one. Not everyone is a tech wizard of the highest order, so I really can’t fault their web masters for using what’s easy and convenient.

          Someone who uses degoogled chromium over tor is also more than tech savvy enough to know what to do if they want to check out a website behind cloudflare. These “demographics” are not being excluded, ATM they’re just being inconvenienced.

          I do agree that we need better browsing neutrality, I just don’t think haranguing individual websites is the way to go about it.

          • @freedomPusherEnglish
            2•2 months ago

            These “demographics” are not being excluded, ATM they’re just being inconvenienced.

            Have another look at that list. People using public libraries are not necessarily tech savvy; more likely the contrary. People whose ISP chose to implement CGNAT don’t necessarily even have any idea that they are sharing a WAN IP address. AOS ≤6 users are likely clueless; they will just blame their phone and buy another.

            I’m not sure it’s fair to say all Tor users are hackers considering Tails is simply a matter of booting with a USB stick inserted. Many VPN users are avg Joes just trying to reach BBC or torrents. VPN services have had to lower the bar to be usable by low tech folks.

            Not everyone is a tech wizard of the highest order, so I really can’t fault their web masters for using what’s easy and convenient.

            I agree it’s much more likely a case of ignorance than malice. But nonetheless they have a professional duty to become informed about the consequences of their choices. Using CF is a proactive move¹. They are responsible for excluding people and should be held accountable until they get it right.

            ¹ OTOH, 4 of those parties have apparently outsourced to “Nationbuilder”, whereas Défi apparently did their own CF deployment. Whoever is behind Nationbuilder owns their incompetence. It’s reasonable to expect an outsourced contractor to know what they’re doing. The political parties should choose a different contractor who can do the job without excluding people.

            update

            Digital exclusion is a big problem in Belgium. Current politicians are dismantling analog infra and forcing people online for government transactions. And those gov resources are often broken and/or exclusive. People are often forced to disclose more info than necessary (in violation of the GDPR minimisation principle). So it is actually becoming quite important to elect people who oppose digital exclusion.