The European Union is looking into whether Hungary’s plan to deploy facial recognition technology to identify people attending LGBTQ+ Pride events is illegal.
Test on gays, continue on political protests. And what does the EU do? Creating lists…
Does someone here know if that watchlist means anything or is it just an alternative to deep concern?
Just based on all the usual hashing between EU and Hungary, this is closer to a stern look than tying funds to rule of law, if you take that as a spectrum.
In a twisted way, I feel that these abusive laws will only quicken the downslide of the Fidesz regime. One of the main reasons they are still kicking aroubd is that they are magnificent in non-confrontational control. Any and all protests so far, the popo were super hands off. They had civil uniform police who would get a bit handsy, but I’m not sure they were police or just the private army of the government (Valton security).
So with all that in mind, if police start getting heavily involved in the protests, my money is on agression levels rising. While it’s horrible for the people, the government will lose any last remaining bit legitimacy they have.
I really hope it doesn’t come to full-on aggressive confrontation. There’s a pretty decent chance Fidesz will lose their supermajority next year through the remaining, heavily kneecapped democratic institutions we have left. Exciting times.
Is banning Pride events as a whole legal under EU law?
Because of national laws about gay marriage differencing greatly and there being a lot of countries where religion plays a serious role in politics i wanted to share with you the actual legal articles, since these are quite easy to understand and the eu has these laws in all languages as well.
This is from the English version of the CHARTER OF FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
Article 11
Freedom of expression and information1 Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.
Article 12
Freedom of assembly and of association1 Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and to freedom of association at all levels, in particular in political, trade union and civic matters, which implies the right of everyone to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his or her interests.
Article 21
Non-discrimination1 Any discrimination based on any ground such as sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation shall be prohibited.
tl;dr No, it is not legal.
Hey, thanks for pointing me directly to it. I wonder why there is so much noise about AI face detection when the core issue seems to be that pride is banned in the first place (and this is one way they want to enforce it).
Well, might be because eastern-european countries have much more discriminating laws on gays compared to north- and western European countries. So even though it’s getting worse, the rethoric isn’t anything new. Hungary has a law forbidding queer ‘propaganda’ that is said to be an almost exact copy of the russian law. Facial recognition on the other hand is very new, and as far as I know hasn’t been used on any other protest/celebration/public gathering anywhere in Europe so perhaps a part of the noise isn’t from people particularly concerned about LGBTQ+ rights, but about their civil liberties and see this as a first step of using digital tech as a mechanism of suppression. But I don’t really know tbh.
Should be in the ban list imho
We will sort this out next year. The opposition is leading the polls. Finally we have a good chance to end this nightmare.And banning the pride is just the tip of the iceberg
