Prepared by: Festim Rizanaj
Over the past week (October 13–19, 2025), conspiracy theories have dominated the misinformation space and social networks, according to online monitoring.
Conspiracy theories have been circulating in the past week mainly on social networks and online media in Serbian, especially on platforms such as Facebook and portals such as Pozitivnasrpska.com, Pravda.rs, Kosovo-online, and Blic.rs. The published content has dealt with various topics intended to incite fear and interethnic tensions. One of them claimed that “Kosovo has requested a new piece of territory from Serbia”, presenting the situation as a “war”, without providing any evidence or official source. Another article accused “Kurti’s gangs” of “attempted kidnapping of a Serbian girl”, although the content did not mention Kurti by name and did not provide any evidence for this connection. Also, the Serbian List and the Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia presented the passage of a KSF convoy in the north as a deliberate provocation, although the KSF, Kosovo Police and KFOR described it as a misunderstanding of the route. Meanwhile, the Blic.rs portal spread another conspiracy theory, interpreting the protest in Tirana in support of former KLA leaders as a “revival of the idea of Greater Albania”, although the statements of Ali Ahmeti and Edi Rama clearly denied such a thing. These contents reflect attempts to build a narrative of a continuous threat from Kosovo and Albanians to Serbia.
The clickbait article was published on October 14 on the official Facebook page of “Radio Television 21” with the title “Elezit: The first time Belgrade will control nine municipalities in Kosovo.” The title does not match Bedri Elezit’s statement, which had said that the nine municipalities are run by the Serbian List, which Prime Minister Kurti has called a “terrorist organization,” and that Belgrade has influence over them.
Fake news was published by the page "Lajme Nga Bota" and the account "Televisioni SuperSky" on Facebook, which claimed that in the "video recordings" of Fatmir Sheholli, arrested for espionage, there was a video showing that Ramush Haradinaj was aware of the attack in Banjska. After verification by hibrid.info, it turned out that no credible media has reported such information, while the post contained numerous spelling errors and a complete lack of facts or credible sources that would support the claim.
A false statement was published on October 15 in the Serbian-language media outlet “pravda.rs”, with the title “LAVROV ON KOSOVO: You took away the Serbs’ historic land!” In this article, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claims that the recognition of Kosovo’s independence constitutes a “coup d’état” and violates UN Resolution 1244. According to verification by hibrid.info, this claim is incorrect, as Kosovo’s independence does not contain any element that meets the legal definition of a coup d’état and does not constitute a violation of Resolution 1244.
The content rated as “Mistake” was published on October 16 in the news edition of “Top Channel” television with the title “FSK enters Serbian municipalities” and the subtitle “Authorities admit it was a mistake: Some vehicles took the wrong road”. The title is incorrect, as it uses the terminology “Serbian municipalities”, which does not officially exist in Kosovo, and does not clarify the location of the incident. In reality, the FSK had mistakenly entered a certain area due to a confusion of the road, as confirmed by the competent authorities.
Conspiracy theory
A Serbian-language post has been published with the caption “THIS IS WAR! Kosovo has requested a new piece of territory from Serbia.” The post was published on Friday (October 10) on Facebook by a Serbian-language page called “Pozitivnasrpska.com.” The caption of the post also included a link to an article published on the page’s website, titled “Kosovo issues an ultimatum to Serbia!?” This post does not provide any official source, document or public statement that would support the claim of such an “ultimatum” from Kosovo towards Serbia. (here)
“Kurti’s gangs have no boundaries: Suspects in attempted kidnapping of Serbian girl released” is the title of an article in Serbian published by “pravda.rs” on October 15. The article contains an article published by the Serbian-language media outlet “Kosovo-online” that reported that the mother of a 16-year-old girl from Zvecan said that the Basic Prosecution in North Mitrovica reclassified the crime from “attempted kidnapping to assault” and that the suspects in the case that occurred on Friday have been released. While the title claims that it is about a “Kurti gang”, such a thing is not argued in the content and there is not even a single word that connects it to Kurti’s name. (here)
The political entity, the Serbian List, and the Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia have described the entry of a Kosovo Security Force convoy into northern Kosovo on Thursday as intentional. According to them, this was done with the intention of causing tensions. They have also linked this to the name of the acting Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, and the political situation at the time of the elections. However, the KSF itself and the Kosovo Police have made it clear during the day that this is a confusion of the route by the convoy. And the NATO Mission in Kosovo, KFOR, also said that it accepts the statements of these authorities. (here)
Without providing any facts, the Serbian-language media outlet “blic.rs” has used Saturday’s protest in Tirana in support of former KLA leaders on trial in The Hague and the statements of the Albanian politician from North Macedonia, Ali Ahmeti, as “the beginning of the revival of the idea of Greater Albania”. Ahmeti has said that no one can guarantee that dissatisfied people would be able to express their revolt in the event of the conviction of former KLA leaders in The Hague, but he has not warned of the unification of the territories with Albanians into a single state. In at least two interviews on the day of the protest, Ahmeti himself has spoken of North Macedonia as a separate state and on one occasion has said that the idea of national unification was from the 80s, but that it has changed in the subsequent period. A recent statement by the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, also rejects the claim of “the revival of the idea of Greater Albania”. (here)
Clickbait
An article titled “Elezi: The first time Belgrade will control nine municipalities in Kosovo” is published. This content was published yesterday (October 14) on the official Facebook page of “Radio Television 21”. The statement of security expert, Bedri Elezi, does not match the title of this article. In his statement, Elezi said that “Official Belgrade will control nine municipalities that are led by the terrorist organization, Lista Srpska, as considered by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo.", adding that "It's striking that this is the first time in a country in the world that nine municipalities are led by a terrorist organization, and official Belgrade, Vučić, has stakes in nine municipalities." (here)
Fake news
The “Lajme Nga Bota” page and the “Televisioni SuperSky” Facebook account have published a claim that in the “video recordings” of Fatmir Sheholli, arrested on suspicion of espionage, there is a video where Ramush Haradinaj is said to have been aware of the attack in Banjska. After verification by hibrid.info, it was found that no credible media has published such information. Also, the post contains many spelling errors and there is no evidence or reliable sources to support the claim. (here)
False statement
An article titled “LAVROV ON KOSOVO: You took away the Serbs’ historic land!” was published on Wednesday (October 15) in the Serbian-language media outlet “pravda.rs”. Hibrid.info has addressed the claim of a coup d’état, which according to Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, came after the recognition of Kosovo’s independence, which, according to him, seriously violated all provisions of UN Security Council Resolution 1244. This claim turns out to be incorrect because Kosovo’s independence does not contain any element that meets the definition of a coup d’état. (here)
error
A report is published with the title “FSK enters Serbian municipalities” and the subtitle “Authorities admit it was a mistake: Several vehicles took the wrong road”. This chronicle was published in the Thursday (October 16) news edition of the Albania-based television, “Top Channel”. The title did not clarify the location of the event and incorrectly used the term “Serbian municipalities”. (here)