Wrote: Fatbardh Dema
Through a post published on Saturday (May 31), it is claimed that the Energy Regulatory Office (ERO) has declared that energy will become 30% more expensive again from October.
This claim was posted on Facebook by the page “New Kosovo", which has over 48 thousand followers.
What did hibrid.info find?
After verification by Hibrid.info, it turned out that this claim is false. In fact, the image used in the post has been manipulated.
After research conducted online, it was found that the authentic image was published on April 11 on the portal page "Signal.com" on Facebook with the caption: "ERO: Energy prices increase by 16%." (see photo below)
Meanwhile, the "Kosova e Re" page has used the same image, but has interfered with its text by replacing the figure "16%" with "+30% again from October 1, 2025." (see photo below)
What did ERO say on April 11?
The Energy Regulatory Office had made an official announcement to the media after the meeting held on April 11. Through this announcement it was officially indicated that the price of electricity has increased by about 16% for all categories of consumers. (see here)
Analyze:
A fake Facebook post from the page "Kosova e Re" claims that ERO will increase the price of energy by 30% from October 2025. After verification by hibrid.info, it was confirmed that the claim is false and that the image has been manipulated.
The original image was published by "Sinjali.com" which reported a 16% increase in the price of energy, confirmed by ERO on April 11.
Based on its work methodology, hibrid.info assesses this claim 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.