Tue, December 23, 2008
Social networking may be a relatively recent phenomenon, but in the Balkans it is being used to stoke and to quell some long-standing tensions.
This Facebook group set up by Serbian nationalists to celebrate the detention and killing of around 8 thousand Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995 was closed by the social networking site following online appeals from thousands of people in Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia.
Within a week as many as 30 thousand people from various faiths joined a group demanding that this group be blocked - but now that it has Azrudin Pecanin says he'll remain on the lookout for other examples of hate speech on the platform.
SOUNDBITE Azrudin Pecanin, Member Of 'close Group Noz Zica Srebrenica' Group, Saying (Serbian):
"We will not stop fighting until all these nationalistic groups are closed and this glorification of genocide is stopped."
Facebook's communications teams suggests that, if anything, this episode proves that it's policy is working - stating that when content violates it's terms of use it will be removed.
But others in the Balkans region say this kind of open platform is ripe for abuse by radicals. Zorica Tomic is a professor of Sociology in Belgrade.
SOUNDBITE Professor of Sociology Zorica Tomic, Saying (Serbian):
"Not by accident Facebook is a dangerous place where you can organise a group to support whatever you want, from the worst social-crime behaviour to the worst ideological systems."
Over recent weeks, there have been several examples of Facebook playing a significant role in helping to fuel political expression in the Balkans. In Croatia it has been used to organize protests against the Prime Minister. In Slovenia, more than 17,000 people have joined a Facebook group urging Slovenia's "perennial foreign minister", Dimitrij Rupel, to retire from political life.
