by Risto Karajkov
Osservatorio sui Balcani

Mid December Facebook shut down the group “Noz, zica, Srebrenica” [Knife, Barb Wire, Srebrenica]. The forum, which got its name after a Serb nationalist slogan, glorified the bloodiest massacre in Europe after the end of World War II and promoted hatred against Muslims.

The group rallied support for the former Serb general and war criminal at large Ratko Mladic who in 1995 led the genocide of 8,000 Muslim men and boys committed by the Serb forces in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica. It was calling all those who believed “Muslims are best on a barbeque or swimming in sulfuric acid” to join them. That was its ideological platform: killing of Muslims and praising war criminals.

Reports differed on the membership the group had managed to acquire before being shut down. According to Reuters, which first broke the story internationally, it was around 1,000 members, but other sources went with numbers as high as 8,000 – a number equivalent to the number of victims in Srebrenica.

A counter-group emerged quickly in response. The group “Close Group Noz, Zica, Srebrenica” managed to gather around 10,000 members, mostly Bosniak, within days of its creation and to have the former shut down by Facebook administrators.

Likely the shutting down was also propelled by the interest of international media, such as Reuters, or the Financial Times, both of which reported the story.

Facebook’s statement on the issue as reported by media reads that the site “supports the free flow of information, and groups provide a forum for discussing important issues. However, Facebook will remove any groups which are violent or threatening.”

Reactions on the affair echoed internationally and covered the entire left-right spectrum. From the position that that this was censorship and act against free speech – comparison has been made to Columbus Day in the US which is in some views also about celebration of a genocide – to pointing out that in some countries similar talk (such as for example praising Nazism) is a crime.

Reactions varied also concerning the potential significance of such behavior. They ranged from comments that this only indicates how fragile and seeming peace in the Balkans is, to saying that this is nothing more than, yet sad and uneducated, teenage anger.

If according to some, such adolescent rage is no different than the rage of young people in Greece or the Netherlands; others disagree by saying that recent history in the Balkans opened the door for hatred the West is not capable of.

According to Boshko Obradovic, member of the board of the magazine “Dveri srpske,” in coverage by Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Kill a Serb, Imam noz od srebra, zaricu ga Srbinu u jedra, Fuck the group ‘Srbe na vrbe’,

“We have a generation which has been growing up in a very difficult transition period; we have huge national frustrations; war traumas; a generation which has grown up without any real spiritual or national education.”

Yet, in his view “such adolescent behavior can be found anywhere in Europe.” “For example we see Greece these days,” says Obradovic, “and over the last years we saw it in France, Germany, or the Netherlands. Our teenagers are not more radical or socially aggressive than teenagers across Europe.”

In the words of Serbian writer Marko Vidojkovic, quoted by the same RFE/RL report , Balkan extremism can still not be equated with what is going on elsewhere:

“Any form of fascism is completely normal around here because under Milosevic’s and Tudjman’s leadership we had incitement of hatred so strong that it simply cannot be eliminated that easily. In such situation, the easiest thing is to hate someone without any reason…”

Nevertheless, Vidojkovic believes that after all the Facebook affair is a work of deluded kids and that a decent mode should be found to straighten them up:

“Kids have always been the victims, without any intention to justify any Nazi. Yet these kids need to be understood and brought back to their senses in some normal way. When I was young, I may have been worse than this.”

Speech hate or incitement of ethnic or religious is a crime around the Balkans, as in many other countries, but many national legislations have still not caught up with the pace of the web. In reaction to the affair, Serbian prosecution authorities said they did not have any mandate to pursue the issue as the legal possibility to prosecute for hate speech on the Internet did not yet exist.

Nevertheless, Serbs are not the only ones talking hatred on Facebook. At the time of writing this text a couple of groups by the name “Srbe na vrbe” [Serbs on Willows; a slang calling for hanging of Serbs], are still active on the site. One opens with the large slogan “Kill a Serb,” the other, which reports its office to be Jasenovac starts with the ghastly slogan “Imam noz od srebra, zaricu ga Srbinu u jedra” [I have a silver knife; I will stab it between a Serb's ribs]. The counter-organizations are also there. One is called “Close the group ‘Srbe na vrbe’” and it counts 5,588 members. There is also a smaller group called “Fuck the group ‘Srbe na vrbe’.”

Some of the chats and comments on these forums are nothing but blind rage and hatred and they are simply too graphic to convey. And indeed, only to state a fact and not debate its appropriateness, such talk would be a criminal offense if used in conventional media in any country in the Balkans.

Some of the comments sighed with the well known feeling of Serbian victimhood. Facebook shut down the Serb nationalists but not the anti-Serb ones, they went.

That would likely be a messy affair – if Facebook was to monitor all such forums that is – and potentially open jobs for thousands of lawyers who should decide where to draw the line. Given national circumstances and sensitivities, what is a crime in one country, can be freely said in another one.

Obradovic says that the “Internet has opened an enormous space for freedom of speech, but it has not yet offered a solution concerning the responsibility for what is being said.” That much is true.

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