Photo: U.S. Department of State / Public Domain

Marketing expert Andrijana Šapina warned about an unusual and unpleasant case concerning the digital identity of former president Kolinda Grabar Kitarović.

As she pointed out on LinkedIn, the internet domain that had been connected to the presidential campaign was redirected to completely inappropriate content, including erotic articles and ads, writes Slobodna Dalmacija.

“This is not a joke or an attempt at sensationalism, but rather a lesson about thoughtlessness and the importance of thinking in time about domain registration and maintenance,” Šapina pointed out.

"The former Croatian president became a link to erotic and similar adult content. It is not a joke or clickbait, but a lesson and a story about thoughtlessness. When a business entity or any institution opens a web domain, it must think about what it will do with it later if it will no longer use it. If you stop paying for the domain, it becomes available to others and can be used for purposes harmful to reputation," wrote Šapina.

Screenshot: LinkedIn, Andrijana Šapina's post.

How the problem occurred

Kolinda Grabar Kitarović was the first woman at the head of Croatia, elected in 2015. Her term lasted until 2020, when she was defeated by Zoran Milanović in the presidential election.

Before that, she served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration and was Croatia's ambassador to the U.S. She also worked as Assistant Secretary General of NATO, which was the highest position achieved by someone from Croatia in international institutions up to that point.

During the presidential campaign, HDZ secured the domain predsjednica.hr, but after the end of the term and the election loss, the domain was no longer renewed. At that point, it was taken over by a Bulgarian company that turned it into a portal filled with erotic stories and dating ads.

After the reaction of Croatian institutions, the site was temporarily removed, but it soon returned with somewhat altered, yet still inappropriate content. Although Carnet initiated arbitration proceedings, the effect was very weak, and the reputational damage had already been done.

A lesson for all politicians and institutions

Šapina emphasizes that such situations can be easily avoided by regularly paying the annual fee for the domain, even when it is no longer actively used. Losing a domain not only creates room for reputational damage, but also carries serious security risks such as email address abuse and phishing attacks.

This case has become a warning to all public figures that their digital identity requires the same attention and control as official communication.

Why domains are more important than you think

A digital name is equal to an ID card; in the business and political world, a web domain is worth as much as the physical address of a company or institution. It is the first impression in the digital space, and losing it can mean catastrophe for reputation.

Large global companies learned the lesson the hard way

There are known cases in which multinational companies lost domains due to carelessness. For example, in 2017, one of the largest technology companies in the world briefly lost an important domain for its cloud service, which caused losses in traffic worth millions.

The domain market is worth billions

Today there is an entire industry dedicated to buying and reselling domains. The most expensive domains have been sold for astronomical amounts, and short and easily memorable names often reach prices in the millions of dollars. This shows how significant digital identity is in the modern world.

One of the common problems is called cybersquatting, when someone intentionally registers a name associated with a famous person or brand in order to later sell it at a high price or use it for commercial purposes. That is precisely why filings in international arbitration proceedings such as WIPO are an everyday occurrence for the legal departments of major brands.

The best defense against domain problems is very simple, and that is regularly renewing registration and planning several years in advance. The price of a domain usually does not exceed a few dozen euros per year, while loss or compromise can cause incalculable damage.