“A Digital Prison”: Surveillance and the Suppression of Civil Society in Serbia

This Amnesty International report charts the deployment of surveillance technology by Serbian authorities, who use digital repression tactics to control and persecute civil society. Based on technical digital forensic research and extensive interviews with spyware victims and Serbian civil society members, the report documents Serbia’s ubiquitous use of data extraction products, including NSO’s Pegasus spyware and the new NoviSpy spyware system – revealed by Amnesty for the first time in this report – targeting journalists, activists, and protesters. “Implement a human rights regulatory framework that governs surveillance and is in line with international human rights law and standards,” one of the report’s recommendations to Serbian authorities states. “Until such a framework is implemented, a moratorium on the purchase, sale, transfer, and use of all spyware should be enforced.”