Beyond Borders: Cross-Regional Lessons on Countering Transnational Digital Repression

As hybrid threats evolve, authoritarian regimes are extending their reach beyond borders — targeting activists, human rights defenders, and journalists operating both domestically and in exile. This session explores transnational digital repression — the use of cyberattacks, spyware, online harassment, and digital surveillance against independent journalists, activists, and human rights defenders from Eastern Europe, whether operating within their countries or continuing their work from abroad.

Transnational digital repression combines cyberattacks, spyware, online harassment, disinformation, phishing, and data leaks with coordinated legal, financial, and information operations. It is one of the fastest-evolving hybrid tactics used by the regimes to intimidate civic and media actors, paralyze independent organizations, and fragment democratic movements across borders.

At the same time, these communities have become laboratories of resilience and innovation. They have built digital emergency response teams, hotlines, and regional networks of solidarity that allow activists to respond to attacks in real time, rebuild their work, and maintain the visibility of independent voices both domestically and in exile.

The session will explore:

-How authoritarian regimes use digital tools to monitor, harass, and discredit civil society from Eastern Europe;

The link between digital repression and broader hybrid threats, including disinformation, lawfare, and surveillance of cross-border networks;

-How local digital security hubs provide emergency digital aid, forensics, and training to high-risk groups;

-The role of cross-border networks and training models in building sustainable resilience within exile communities;

-Opportunities for Moldova to engage in regional cooperation on protecting civil society and independent media against transnational digital repression.

The discussion will connect regional practice with policy: how states like Moldova, currently facing hybrid pressure itself, can collaborate with civil society and international partners to detect, document, and counter digital repression that transcends borders.

About organizations:

ARTICLE 19 Europe defends and promotes freedom of expression and access to information across Europe and Central Asia. As the regional office of the global ARTICLE 19 organization, we shape public debate and develop innovative responses to both emerging and persistent human rights challenges. With extensive experience at the intersection of human rights, technology, and policy, we work to drive systemic change. We push back censorship, counter disinformation, strengthen the digital security of human rights defenders, and protect independent media and civic space. Our overarching goal is to safeguard freedom of expression, both online and offline, while amplifying the power of resilient communities to resist abuses of power. 

CyberHUB Armenia is a Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) for Armenian civil society -- NGOs, Human Rights Defenders, Activists, journalists and independent media. CyberHUB serve as a contact point and help desk for the above-mentioned groups in Armenia and collect, analyze and where appropriate, anonymously and responsibly share incident data and indicators with the global threat intelligence community.

Association Human Constanta International addresses some of the most cutting-edge topics within the human rights field, including the digital rights agenda in Belarus and the region of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. By developing a business and human rights dimension of addressing the human rights crisis, Human Constanta is able to engage big tech companies in dialogue and cooperation as to how they can avoid aiding the regime and how they can help empower civil society and widen civic space online and offline. Human Constanta’s digital rights and cybersecurity expertise also allows them to promptly react to the digital aspects of political persecution and consult CSOs and media on digital literacy and security.