Anonymous IT specialists launch database of people arrested during opposition protests in Belarus

A website containing a unified database of people arrested during the protests in Belarus was launched on August 18, reports the Belarusian edition of The Village. 

Who exactly established the site remains unclear: The Village refers to the website’s creators as “concerned IT specialists” who “remain anonymous.”

According to the website’s creators, as of August 18, the database had collected information on 5,000 people arrested during the rallies from August 10–16.

The website relies on data from volunteers, the Belarusian Prosecutor’s Office, and the news site Tut.by, as well as information “from lists created on Telegram channels.”

“At the moment the site contains information about people who were or are in the Okrestina [temporary detention facility] and [prison], the Zhodino [temporary detention facility], as well as in hospitals,” The Village explains.

The site uses an .app domain, which Google launched for mobile app developers. This domain is issued to Google cloud users, meaning registration through a domain name registrar (for example, .ru) isn’t required.

Since the opposition demonstrations began on August 9, 7,000 people have been arrested in Minsk and other cities across Belarus. According to Belarusian police officials, as of 2:00 p.m. local time on August 17, only 122 of these people were still in custody. That same day, Tut.by reported that 76 people who were arrested during the demonstrations are considered missing.