© Santé
Fake CovidCheck certificates with joke names, such as Mickey Mouse or Adolf Hitler, have been making the rounds on social media for several days.
This issue is taken very seriously and was the subject of a motion tabled in the Chamber of Deputies on Thursday afternoon to ensure that these false certificates are now detected by the Luxembourgish application, as is already the case in Germany, France, and Italy.
These countries have already taken the necessary measures to ensure that applications are able to distinguish between a genuine certificate and a fake one. The motion in Luxembourg aims to propose a major update to the application so that this kind of situation is no longer possible.
On Tuesday, Minister of Health Paulette Lenert confirmed that the authorities were aware of the problem in the Grand Duchy. The files in question have already been forwarded to the judicial authorities, but the problem persists as the CovidCheck application still does not distinguish between a fake and a real certificate.
Read also: CovidCheck fraud attempts should be reported, says Paulette Lenert
MP Sven Clement from the Pirate Party deplores the fact that it is still possible "to scan the certificate of Mr Adolf Hitler and get an OK from the official application". Clement stressed that this is "not normal" and exactly what his party wants to avoid with the motion tabled on Thursday afternoon. The MP pointed out that the motion deliberately does not stipulate a date, so that the State Council has time to decide how and how quickly it wants to solve the problem.
Audio in Luxembourgish - Sven Clement:
But, Clement explained, the Pirate Party wanted, on behalf of the Chamber of Deputies, to show its "profound disagreement" with the fact that people are moving freely in Luxembourg with the certificate of a man responsible for war crimes. "It's just a bit too much", Clement added.
A 'provocation'
Xavier Bettel, the prime minister, called this behaviour a "provocation" and reacted by explaining that these QR codes protect citizens, but by using fake certificates, these people are also using another person's data and that "is not the way to get our lives back to normal". Bettel stressed that the users of these fake codes should realise that they are committing a crime.
The prime minister argued that the issue goes beyond the joke names that have gone viral on social media over the past few days. Luxembourgish certificates are sold over the internet, and even during the 'Fun um Glacis' event, which replaced the 2021 edition of the Schueberfouer, certificates were sold for €100, Bettel revealed.
Bettel also pointed out that for the time being, updating the app is not that simple. He explained that he was told that the EU is analysing "a global solution for all countries". The prime minister also stated that the government has to assess whether the state needs to adapt its legislation if it is decided to create a database that gathers all these QR codes, which are not stored anywhere until now. Bettel announced that the subject will be discussed in the State Council on Friday.
Audio in Luxembourgish - Xavier Bettel:
