Despite the fake videos produced to smear Tisza’s politician were eventually deleted, hundreds of thousands of TikTok users had seen the content suggesting that András Kulja would abolish family allowance and drag Hungary into the Russian-Ukrainian war. According to the opposition politician, this could merely be the test phase of a later, much larger smear campaign.
Although the prospect of the police being able to retrospectively fine participants using a facial recognition system – meaning those attending Budapest Pride could be fined for up to 200,000 HUF under the recently passed law amendment – does indeed sound terrifying, an expert interviewed by 24.hu believes that with the currently available tools, authorities would struggle with even a medium-sized group of demonstrators, let alone a crowd numbering tens of thousands. What could drastically change the situation is the potential acquisition of Chinese technology.