Prepared by: Festim Rizanaj
As a result of the findings and treatments of misinformation published last week, disinformation is what dominated the misinformation ecosphere.
Disinformation was published on social media and news portals. Disinformation was published on social media that an eagle was released in flight in a stadium in Europe in honor of the footballer Granit Xhaka; that the Serbian army was seen on the border with Kosovo. Meanwhile, disinformation was published on news portals claiming that the EU will lose Kosovo if it does not take it on board; through an old news story, it was claimed that the terrorist group known as the Islamic State (ISIS) has threatened Kosovo and Albania; disinformation was also published that James O'Brien has publicly requested Kosovo to take steps on the issue of the Association of Serb-majority municipalities before May 10.
Deceptive content was published on social media with false claims that senior citizens in Kosovo can apply for free health insurance, starting in April of this year; and that 72% of citizens trust the Government in Kosovo.
Unverified content was published on news portals and social media. News portals published an unverified claim that President Osmani's husband was mentioned in the speech of Serbian President Vučić regarding the injury of two young Serbian men in Kosovo. Meanwhile, an image generated with artificial intelligence was published on social media claiming to depict children from Gaza.
The fake news was published on social media where an image of an elderly person was claimed to represent the now deceased former US President John Kennedy on the 100th anniversary of his birth.
Manipulation of facts was published on social media regarding the claim that the University of Pristina professor accused of sexual harassment, Xhevat Krasniqi, has been arrested.
Clickbait articles have been published on social media information portals where headlines claim that Albanian footballer Eros Grezda has ended his football career, as well as information for which the location of the event is not disclosed in the headline; or even old news about the death of a 16-year-old Albanian in Italy, re-published as current.
Clickbait/Disinformation has been assessed as a claim in Serbian-language media, where through headlines on a statement by former Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, regarding Dora Bakoyannis' report on Kosovo's membership in the Council of Europe, it was presented as the position of the Greek state.
Conspiracy theory from the Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia through a press release issued on April 23, claiming that a group, as this office calls "Albanian extremists" robbed and beat 20-year-old Petar Kostić in Mitrovica.
disinformation
On Saturday, April 20, the Albanian media outlet “ntv.al” published an article titled “We will LOSE Kosovo if we don’t take it with us, Lajcak warns the EU.” After reading the statements cited in the article, as well as the published recordings of Lajcak’s speech, it appears that he did not give such a position. (here)
A video claimed that an eagle was released in a stadium in Europe in honor of the footballer Granit Xhaka. This claim was made by a Facebook page named “Deçani” on April 21, which managed to collect over 700 thousand views. After verification of the facts carried out by hibrid.info, it was confirmed that this video was made at the stadium of the American rugby team in Philadelphia, “Philadelphia Eagles”, and that it is in no way related to the footballer Xhaka, as claimed by the aforementioned page. (here)
A newly published article is claiming that the terrorist group known as the Islamic State (ISIS) has threatened Kosovo and Albania. The article was published on Monday (April 22) by the portal “lecanton27.ch”, which calls itself the first Albanian newspaper in Switzerland. After fact-checking by hibrid.info, it was confirmed that this news is from 2015, when ISIS had released a video threatening several countries, calling them a “coalition of the devils”, among which were the flags of Kosovo and Albania. (here)
The claim made by the account named “mtrks25” on TikTok on April 20, 2024, with the caption “Exclusive: Serbian Army on the Kosovo border”, without indicating that the video is old, is untrue. The newly released video material was also found to have been published in June 2023 on the X platform. (here)
It has been claimed that James O'Brien has publicly demanded that Kosovo take steps on the issue of the Association of Serb-majority Municipalities before May 10. The claim was made by the Albanian news outlet, "ntv.al", through a photo posted on Facebook on April 25. After fact-checking by hibrid.info, it is confirmed that this statement was not made by the US Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia. He did not mention a date for the issue of the Association of Serb-majority Municipalities, but said that "urgent progress" is needed in this regard. (here)
Lies
Through a link published in the form of an image, it is claimed that the elderly in Kosovo can apply for free health insurance, starting from April of this year. The link published (April 11) by a page named “Qwe” on Facebook, is captioned “The Government of Kosovo offers free health insurance. Click to apply for your exclusive medical insurance.” However, hibrid.info has confirmed that such an application option is not presented by the website opened after clicking on this image and no official decision has been found by the Government of Kosovo on this issue. (here)
An image claims that 72% of citizens trust the Government in Kosovo. This image was published on April 23 on TikTok by the account “albinkurti_kryeminister”. However, what was found by hibrid.info's research is that the image has been tampered with by manipulating the percentage figure expressed in the photo. (here)
Unverified content
It was alleged that President Osmani's husband was mentioned in the speech of Serbian President Vučić regarding the injury of two young Serbs in Kosovo. After verifying the speech, it was found that the mistake occurred during the direct simultaneous translation, where the part in which President Osmani's husband was allegedly mentioned was misinterpreted. In fact, Vučić did not mention the President's husband. (here)
A published image of children eating watermelon was claimed to depict Palestinian children in Gaza as victims of the new world order. The image was published by a Facebook page called “The Reis” with the caption, “Gazans are the Victims of the New World Order. We might get blocked after this post…”. After re-searching the published image, it was found that it was generated with artificial intelligence. (here)
Fake news
An image of an elderly person is being claimed to represent the now deceased former US President John Kennedy on the 100th anniversary of his birth. This video content was published on April 19 by the Albanian-language Facebook page, “Patriotet e Botes Re”. Hibrid.info has researched and confirmed that the image shown in the video material belongs to Russell LeeRoy Pickett, an American veteran of World War II, and not John Kennedy, as claimed by the page “Patriotet e Botes Re”. (here)
Manipulation of facts
A video posted on social media claims that the University of Pristina professor accused of sexual harassment, Xhevat Krasniqi, has been arrested. The video was posted on April 23 on the TikTok app by an account named “temu..gr”. However, the video actually shows the moments when the police remove the professor from the hall, after activists from the Student Feminist Movement blocked the entrance to the Central Administration of the University of Pristina, where the Ethics Council meeting was being held. (here)
Clickbait
Through the headlines of articles published by several media outlets, it has been claimed that Albanian footballer Eros Grezda has ended his football career. The articles titled “Former national team player ends 29 years with football” and “Eros Grezda gives up football, his unexpected statement” were published on April 25 by the information portals, “kosovapost.net” and “syri.net”. However, in the announcement published on Instagram, the footballer announced that he has decided to retire from football, for the time being. (here)
An article titled “Knife attack in a school, two teachers and a student injured” was published on April 25. The article was published by the information portal “Kosova-sot.info”. After fact-checking by hibrid.info, it was confirmed that the title does not make it clear that the event took place in Wales, Great Britain. The information portal in question is registered in Kosovo (see here), therefore, as such, the title in question may leave room for misinformation among potential readers of this article, that the event took place in Kosovo. (here)
Through posts on several Facebook pages, a news story from a few months ago about the death of a 16-year-old Albanian in Italy has been revived. “Sad news! Albanian footballer dies in accident” is the title used by these Facebook pages in posts made on Thursday (April 25). On Facebook, these pages have used generalizing photos to encourage clicks. While the Facebook posts do not state when the event occurred, when the article is clicked on, the text entry states that “this news story is several months old.” (here)
Clickbait/misinformation
At least two Serbian-language media outlets have misinformed through headlines about a statement by former Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras regarding Dora Bakoyannis' report on Kosovo's membership in the Council of Europe. A statement by Samaras that was initially published in the Greek media outlet "tovima" (read here) the media outlets “pravda.rs” and “alo.rs” presented it in their headlines on Saturday (April 27) as the position of the Greek state. “Greece distances itself from Bakoyannis: The report on the so-called Kosovo does not represent us or our culture” is the headline of the media outlet “pravda”, while “alo” gave the article the title “Bakoyannis’ hand is given to the flamethrowers, her words do not represent Greece”. None of the headlines indicate that this is the position of MP Samaras and not of the Greek state. (here)
Conspiracy theory
The Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia, through a statement issued on April 23, has claimed that a group, as this office calls “Albanian extremists” have robbed and beaten 20-year-old Petar Kostić in Mitrovica. Regarding this incident, this office has said that the action was carried out as a result of the “official Pristina regime”, which “wants to carry out a new ethnic cleansing”. In addition, the aforementioned office considers this incident as the 500th case with ethnic motives, since Albin Kurti came to power. Hibrid.info, after checking the facts, has confirmed that it is still not known who the perpetrators of the crime are. (here)