this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2025
451 points (99.3% liked)
Europe
4419 readers
1908 users here now
News and information from Europe πͺπΊ
(Current banner: La Mancha, Spain. Feel free to post submissions for banner images.)
Rules (2024-08-30)
- This is an English-language community. Comments should be in English. Posts can link to non-English news sources when providing a full-text translation in the post description. Automated translations are fine, as long as they don't overly distort the content.
- No links to misinformation or commercial advertising. When you post outdated/historic articles, add the year of publication to the post title. Infographics must include a source and a year of creation; if possible, also provide a link to the source.
- Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. Don't post direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments. Don't troll nor incite hatred. Don't look for novel argumentation strategies at Wikipedia's List of fallacies.
- No bigotry, sexism, racism, antisemitism, dehumanization of minorities, or glorification of National Socialism.
- Be the signal, not the noise: Strive to post insightful comments. Add "/s" when you're being sarcastic (and don't use it to break rule no. 3).
- If you link to paywalled information, please provide also a link to a freely available archived version. Alternatively, try to find a different source.
- Light-hearted content, memes, and posts about your European everyday belong in [email protected]. (They're cool, you should subscribe there too!)
- Don't evade bans. If we notice ban evasion, that will result in a permanent ban for all the accounts we can associate with you.
- No posts linking to speculative reporting about ongoing events with unclear backgrounds. Please wait at least 12 hours. (E.g., do not post breathless reporting on an ongoing terror attack.)
(This list may get expanded when necessary.)
We will use some leeway to decide whether to remove a comment.
If need be, there are also bans: 3 days for lighter offenses, 14 days for bigger offenses, and permanent bans for people who don't show any willingness to participate productively. If we think the ban reason is obvious, we may not specifically write to you.
If you want to protest a removal or ban, feel free to write privately to the mods: @[email protected], @[email protected], or @[email protected].
founded 8 months ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
LRAD. Wouldn't surprise me if they were field testing the gear for the yanks or whoever. Would also explain why they did it in the middle of a "moment of silence".
LRAD isn't some super fancy tech. Don't let them use this to spread anti-western bullshit and divide the movement. This is what Putin and his cronies want.
How LRAD works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7UZHEHhdek
And how to counter it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXKTBQBugIA
I know what it is, and they got it from the US, not from Russia. Not every asshole in the world is Putin's subordinate.
I'm not saying they got it from Russia either, I'm saying that the Serbian govt. can make LRADs themselves. And they (Russia and their supporters) will try to use incidents like this as propaganda to divide the people by spreading an anti-western sentiment (eg. "testing gear for the yanks or whoever"). It's standard procedure for the Russians and their allies. Disinformation is their biggest stick right now.
Also, I'm not finding anything about Serbia acquiring LRAD systems from Europe, the US or Russia. Just conjecture from a handful of smaller websites. Because again, Serbia can just make their own. They're not complicated or expensive to make.
You severely, and I mean severely overestimate the ingenuity of the current state security's apparatus. And the word on the street was it's Genasys gear, ordered after the 2020 protests. The press caught wind of it in 2022 when they tried to change the law to allow it's use. Ironically, at the time of purchase, the head cop was Vulin, who personally is a huge russophile, but hey, busyness is busyness, I guess.
Exactly. I'm not a huge fan of rumors and this is the only thing I can find directly linking Genasys and Serbia - at all. Which references Direktno.rs as their source, but I can't that info anywhere on their site. The article you linked doesn't even mention them directly.
Just a protip: If someone is finger pointing (at Genasys or anyone) without actual proof (documentation, pictures, etc.) just ignore it, it's probably bullshit. Stay focused on the on the prize and taking down YOUR corrupt officials, don't let anyone divide the group.
Edit: Yup, this rumor was started by Russian disinformation bots here and here. With their "source" being a screenshot from another, unverifiable social media post.
The direktno.rs info would probably be this article. And, sadly, considering the current protest is, initially, precisely over the refusal to release what should be publicly available documents, word on the street is about as good as we're gonna get.
And, as a sidenote, don't assume what you imagine "the group" to be is what "the group" actually is. There is a reason why, for the first time in over a decade, Serbian protesters don't wave EU flags anymore.
Yeah, I know about the blockade on documents. This was an issue even in 2015 when I was there. I'm one of the people who trained Serbian journalists how to gather and leak data ;)
That N1 article reads like a speculative opinion piece. But Serbian isn't my first language and I'm not up-to-date on all of the nuances of EU-Serbia relations so I can't really comment there. I'll just say Serbia need to do what's best for Serbia.
PS - I don't know if you caught my edit in my previous post. I found the source of that Genasys rumor, it's disinformation ;)
Edit: Forgot to mention, I'm looking into that Direktno.rs article now and seeing what I can verify. Which is tough with the document blockade as you mentioned.
Edit 2: Not finding anything linking Jugoimport & Romax directly to Genasys. Literally everything I find is linking back to the same article you linked, which sadly doesn't contain anything concrete. I've found a few pictures and videos of vehicles that have dishes on top them (the Porsche pics made me laugh.) But nothing confirming they're Genasys or even actual LRADs and their shape/profile don't match any of the Genasys systems.
If I'm reading it right, the VK post is from 20 minutes ago, the direktno article is from 2022. Tthe article is the source, not the other way around. The FB link says "content unavailable".
In the meantime, someone dug up a report (2024 , page 20) of a "suspected LRAD" being used by the Gendarmerie (ie. the guys on the field yesterday) against migrants up near the Hungarian border, but their source (November 2023, page 8), just says "gun-like sonic device".
The N1 article is a report on the statement of ret. gen. PonoΕ‘, it's his opinion. And, frankly, that seems to be the prevailing opinion. Guess we'll see if Flinten-Uschi says anything about yesterday beyond being very deeply concerned as usual. EDIT: Im Westen nichts Neues
BTW, a DOS-era minister of the interior just went on Nova S TV and called it "Genasys brand, imported by Jugoimport, I believe in 2022, I believe through Israel, though American in make". I get the feeling more stuff is gonna float up in the next few days.
Sorry, I should have clarified. The VK post is from 22 hours ago and not directly related the incident yesterday. But the TEXT from that was used to amplify other posts attributing the system used last night to Genasys, across all of social media. Such as the Facebook post I linked, but that's been rightfully taken down (hence the confusion probably). This is a common tactic with Chinese and Russian bot campaigns, the same exact text being used with maybe a 2-3 words changed around. They just pivoted an already running LRAD disinfo campaign into one suited for what happened yesterday. Again, a common tactic with them.
And Genasys doesn't make any "gun-like" systems that I'm aware of. They're usually vertical panels like this, this and this. Or the horn speaker thing that can be carried by individual people, but this isn't going to have the range we saw last night. The horizontal satellite dish looking ones and the ones on towers also aren't super directional and are used more for public addresses, so not the kind that are used for crowd control/making people sick.
I'll look into the Israel connection in a bit too. That's probably a good lede.
The government hates that silence because it reminds them they killed 15 people on the train station in Novi Sad.
Protests started when they attacked students giving the respects to victims.