Why are you offline? The issue of digital consent and discrimination of Roma communities during pandemic in Slovakia
| Author | Matúš Mesarčík,Denisa Nevická |
| DOI | 10.1177/13582291221096615 |
| Published date | 01 June 2022 |
| Date | 01 June 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
International Journal of
Discrimination and the Law
2022, Vol. 22(2) 172–191
© The Author(s) 2022
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/13582291221096615
journals.sagepub.com/home/jdi
Why are you offline? The issue
of digital consent and
discrimination of Roma
communities during pandemic
in Slovakia
Denisa Nevick´
a
1
and Mat ´
uˇ
s Mesarˇ
c´
ık
2
Abstract
The article is focused on the issue of discrimination against Roma communities in the use
of educational online platforms on account of failure to provide digital consent. The digital
education model used during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Slovak Republic somehow
forgot about Roma communities, thus preventing Roma students from accessing edu-
cation through online platforms. This contribution is aimed to foster the discussion of
discrimination against marginalized Roma communities in accessing education through
online platforms and to point out the inadequacy of national legislation on the provision of
digital consent.
Keywords
Roma, digital education, digital consent, data protection, discrimination, pandemic
Introduction
Digitalization of services and society provides opportunities and solutions for several
social issues on a huge scale. The spread of access to the Internet in connection with the
1
Department of Labor Law and Social Security Law, Faculty of Law, Comenius University in Bratislava, Bratislava,
The Slovak Republic
2
Faculty of Law, Institute of Information Technology Law and Intellectual Property Law, Comenius University in
Bratislava, Bratislava, The Slovak Republic
Corresponding author:
Mat´
uˇ
s Mesarˇ
c´
ık, Institute of Information Technology Law and Intellectual Property Law, Faculty of Law,
Comenius University in Bratislava,
ˇ
Safar´
ıkovo sq. No. 6, Bratislava 810 00, The Slovak Republic.
Email: matus.mesarcik@flaw.uniba.sk
growth of digital literacy is without any doubt aiding with several issues including the
provision of education in marginalized communities. However, as noted by Greco and
Floridi, the benefits of digitalization may trigger more inequality due to insufficient
literacy or weak access and understanding of the infosphere (Greco and Floridi, 2003).
This conclusion is also supported by Taylor highlighting possibilities of negative in-
fluence on marginalized communities as they are often subject to strict profiling due to
biases in cases of credit loans or law enforcement. Taylor´s position stands on em-
phasizing “ethical paths through a datafying world “consisting of three pillars: visibility,
engagement with technology, and non-discrimination (Taylor, 2017). The key is to
achieve fairness in the treatment of individuals concerning their digital data. Data injustice
is one of the most visible issues connected to digitalization concerning marginalized
communities (Taylor, 2017). The Slovak Republic is not an exception.
Marginalized communities, especially the Roma community, are subject to the pro-
tection of the legal system, but the practical application of individual legal regulations is
insufficient. The Slovak Republic regularly adopts a strategy for the inclusion of Roma
communities and marginalized communities. One of the main goals in the inclusion
strategy is access to education, which aims to eliminate the cyclicality of Roma issues and
enable Roma children to enjoy decent living conditions. Despite these noble goals, which
are in line with the principle of equal treatment, the practice is different. The COVID-19
pandemic has shown that Roma children are the first to have their right to education
violated since they constitute the vast majority of poverty-stricken children. The right to
education also acquires other rights like the right to work, or the right to a decent standard
of living, which Roma children without education will find difficult to achieve in the
future. We are of the opinion, that these children are being directly discriminated.
The authors’research aims to analyze the position of Roma pupils in marginalized
communities during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Slovak Republic, concerning their
right to education through digital platforms. It is Roma pupils in marginalized com-
munities who do not have in most cases access to online education. Even if they have
digital access, from the point of EU data protection law, there might be an issue of granting
consent or obtaining the valid agreement of children’s rightsholders to use most platforms
and applications as these two legal grounds of processing are most widely used in
connection with digital educational platforms. However, their parents come from an
equally disadvantaged environment and may not understand the content of the consent,
which may lead to its non-granting. The authors aim to point out the possible dis-
crimination associated with the issue and to propose solutions to eliminate discrimination
against Roma pupils. To our knowledge, similar research combining legal requirements in
connection with digital literacy and the situation of the Roma community has not been
conducted.
The research methodology used in the present article includes legal research of
legislation, authoritative texts, case law, and doctrinal literature. Subsequently,the author s
analyze topical norms and text connected to the position of Roma pupils in Slovakia,
based on legal research. The analysis is followed by the comparison of results to European
standards. Finally, the authors present suggestions on how to improve the law based on
legal research, analysis, and comparison.
Nevick´
a and Mesarˇ
c´
ık173
To continue reading
Request your trial