Wrote: Etrit Rexhepi
Images have been published showing an official document called a "Decree", related to the implementation of a Constitutional Court decision on 24 hectares of land attributed to the Deçan Monastery.
The document bears the signature of the then president of Kosovo, Hashim Thaçi.
This content was found published on Saturday (March 14) on Facebook and TikTok by various pages and accounts (see here, here, here, here and here).
What's wrong with them?
Hibrid.info found that these images are generated by artificial intelligence (AI).
On May 20, 2016, the Constitutional Court of Kosovo ruled in favor of the Deçan Monastery for 24 hectares of land and forest, after the latter had appealed to this court regarding the property dispute it had with the socially-owned enterprises “Apiko” and “Iliria” (see here).
Hashim Thaçi, who held the position of president at the time, after this decision, in a post on his Facebook account, said: "The Constitutional Court's decision regarding church property in Deçan is based on the Constitution of the State and the European Convention on Human Rights. Kosovo is a state governed by the rule of law where court decisions are respected. Property is inalienable, regardless of who owns it." (see here).
However, neither in the posts on his Facebook account nor in the announcements of Thaçi's activities on that date, on the website of the Presidency of Kosovo, were there any announcements confirming that he had signed a decree implementing this decision (see here).
There is no information in the decrees section of the Presidency website (see here).
Hibrid.info has researched using the search engine "Google", with the words "decree on the implementation of the decision of the constitutional court hashim thaçi", but did not come across any information from credible sources, which could confirm the claim in question (see here).
After researching the facts presented, hibrid.info has verified the authenticity of the images. After checking the images, through “HiveModeration.com”, a platform that analyzes the possibility of AI-generated content, it can be assessed that these images may have been generated by this technology.
Another detail in these images that has been verified is the signature seen there. After comparing it with official documents in which Thaçi had signed, it has been proven that the signature in these images does not belong to the former president of Kosovo (here).
Original photo of an official document signed by Hashim Thaçi
The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, on March 13, 2024, stated that the Kosovo government had requested the Kosovo Cadastral Agency to implement the decision of the Constitutional Court, that the lands surrounding the Deçan Monastery be transferred to this monastery (see here).
Seven days later, the Deçan Monastery had 24 hectares of land registered in its name in the central Cadastre of Kosovo (see here).
Days earlier (March 8), the Minister of Communities and Returns, Nenad Rašić, in an interview for "Radio Gorazhdevci", stated that Albin Kurti had told him that he was implementing the decision on the 24 hectares of the Deçan Monastery because of him (see here). This statement was later corrected by Rašić, who said that he confused Kurti's sentence "we did this for you" with a conversation that had taken place earlier, during the approval of the Serbian patriarch's visit (see here).
However, Rashiq's first statement brought reactions from opposition party officials, who demanded clarification from Prime Minister Kurti after this statement, also casting doubts on the circumstances of Kurti's decision to implement the Constitutional Court's ruling.
Analyze:
Images have been posted on social media platforms Facebook and TikTok claiming to show a “Decree” signed by former President Hashim Thaçi, regarding the implementation of the Constitutional Court’s decision on 24 hectares of land in the Deçan Monastery. The posts suggest that the document is authentic and shows official actions by Thaçi.
After verifying the facts, Hibrid.info has not found any evidence confirming the existence of such a decree. Neither in the former president's posts nor on the official website of the Presidency of Kosovo is there any data confirming that Thaçi had signed a decree on this issue.
Also, analysis of the images with the HiveModeration.com platform showed that they could have been generated by AI. Meanwhile, comparison of the signature in the images with real documents signed by Thaçi showed that the signature does not belong to the former president.
Based on its work methodology, hibrid.info assesses the content as "Disinformation" and "Fraud".
Reasoning:
"Disinformation" is defined as information content that contains a "mix" of inaccurate sources or even half-truthful attributes, and that is created and/or distributed with the deliberate intention of causing harm. The motive behind the producers/distributors of disinformation content lies in achieving a political, financial, psychological or social goal.
The “Deception” rating is given to informational content that is manipulated in terms of visual (deepfake, cheapfake), audio, or textual content to deceive the audience. This form of deception is usually used to produce false and manipulated content.