A video created with images from protests in Tirana is published, where citizens are opposing the construction of a tourist resort in the Zvërnec area.
video published on Thursday (June 4) on TikTok contains several images, including a photo from the protest, showing a banner with the portrait of Kosovo's Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, and the inscription: "Kosovo, give us Albin for one term; Albania needs change".
What's wrong with this image?
The image in question was generated with artificial intelligence.
To verify the origin of the footage, the video was analyzed with the automated program "InVID", dividing it into keyframes, which enabled the analysis of each footage separately.
Due to some visual deformations observed in the frame, the banner with the portrait of Albin Kurti was analyzed with the "HiveModeration" platform to assess whether the image was generated with artificial intelligence (AI).
After analysis, the result showed a high probability that the image was generated by this technology.
A little context
In Albania, protests are being held against a major tourism project in the Pishë Poro–Nartë protected area, near Vlora, which envisages the construction of luxury hotels and villas worth billions of euros and is linked to foreign investors, including previously mentioned plans by Jared Kushner, son-in-law of US President Donald Trump.
Residents, activists, and civil society are protesting mainly due to the potential impact on the sensitive environment of the area, land ownership disputes, and the lack of transparency about the project and how it was approved (see here).
Also in Kosovo on Thursday (June 4), a solidarity protest was held in front of the Albanian Embassy in Pristina, where several activists expressed support for the protests in Albania against the tourist projects in Zvërnec and Sazan, opposing the privatization of coastal areas and the risk to the environment and public assets (see here).
Analyze:
The photograph shows a banner with the portrait of Kosovo's Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, and the inscription "Kosovo, give us Albin for one term; Albania needs change" is not authentic and does not present a real picture of the protests in Albania against a tourist resort in the Zvërnec area.
The content has visual distortions that are observed in some elements of the image, and after analysis using the "HiveModeration" platform, it has been shown that there is a high probability that it was generated with artificial intelligence.
Therefore, based on the working methodology, hibrid.info assesses the content as "Fraud".
Reasoning:
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.