An image is published with the caption claiming that Prime Minister Albin Kurti is seeking the unification of Kosovo with Albania.
content with this caption it was published on TikTok on Saturday (October 24) by the account named "MalborOriginal".
What's wrong with the content?
This content presents a political claim accompanied by an artificial intelligence-generated image of Albin Kurti at a podium. The image is used to give the claim the appearance of a recent public statement or position expressed by the Prime Minister.
However, no evidence is provided that Albin Kurti has made such a statement or request.
The same content was also found and published by another account on TikTok and in Facebook, Instagram and Youtube.
As of the time of the treatment, the original treated content has received over 78 thousand views, over 4 thousand 900 likes and over 400 comments. The published comments indicate that some users have interpreted the caption as a real statement by the Prime Minister.
Hibrid.info researched the origin of the image using Google Lens (see here).
The AI Overview summary states that the image depicts Kosovo’s Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, speaking at a podium, over which are placed sensational political inscriptions in Albanian, related to relations between Kosovo and Albania. It further emphasizes that the claims about Kurti’s stance on the unification of Kosovo with Albania are linked to his previous statements, according to which democratic unification is a long-standing historical aspiration, but which is currently limited by Kosovo’s Constitution and legal framework (see here).
The summary also mentions that the differences between Kurti and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama regarding regional initiatives and cooperation with Western allies are often presented in the media as personal clashes or a power struggle, although the two have held meetings for cooperation in various fields. Finally, it clarifies that claims that one or the other opposes national interests out of fear of losing power are part of party or viral political commentary and not their official statements.
Then hibrid.info HIS in the search engine “Google” with the words “albin kurti seeks national unity”. The search results showed articles published by the media analyzing his statements, emphasizing that, although national unity remains a historical intention and conviction, the limitations of the Constitution of Kosovo make it legally impossible at present, shifting the focus to close cooperation between the two independent states.
Most headlines and analyses discuss what they call a “political metamorphosis” or fading of this demand since his coming to power.
The investigation also continued on Prime Minister Kurti's Facebook page, which he uses as a communication channel. However, no recent posts were found where he expressed the alleged position (see here).
Since the search did not yield concrete evidence supporting the claim, hibrid.info analyzed the image through the online tool "Hive Moderation", which serves to identify content generated by artificial intelligence (AI) and materials manipulated through deepfake technology.
Image verification assessed it as 99.9% likely to have been generated through artificial intelligence (AI).
Analyze
The publication presents the claim that Kosovo's Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, is seeking the unification of Kosovo with Albania, accompanying it with an image generated through artificial intelligence, where Kurti is seen at a podium.
However, the investigation of the claim found no evidence that Kurti has recently made such a statement or request. Although in an interview published on February 15, 2023, he had spoken about the ideal of the National Union, saying that he was at its service, this statement does not constitute evidence that he has made a new request for the unification of Kosovo with Albania.
So, the publication attributes a specific political request to Kurti, without providing any statement or source that supports this claim.
Furthermore, the use of an AI-generated image of Kurti appearing at a podium creates the impression that he has made a public statement on the issue. However, the image does not prove that such a statement occurred.
Therefore, based on the working methodology, hibrid.info assesses the content as "Fraud".
rationale
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.