"I GAVE KOSOVO BACK TO MY PEOPLE! From the hands of those who had kidnapped it, I took it and gave it back to my People. This is why they judge me because I put Mitrovica back on the map, forever, just as the Martyrs told us to do."
This is the caption of an image published on Facebook by accounts with the names "Luan Ibrahim Gacaferi”And“Elez Neziraj”, as well as from the page “The Kastriots of Dardania – Northern Albania".
The image purports to show a statement by Albin Kurti, the acting Prime Minister of Kosovo.
What's wrong with this content?
There is no evidence that Albin Kurti has made such a public statement.
As of the time of writing, the post with this image on the account "Luan Ibrahim Gacaferi" has over 3,200 likes. The latter was a candidate for deputy on the list of the Vetëvendosje Movement (LVV) in the parliamentary elections of February 9.
While on the "Elez Neziraj" account, the post has over 380 likes and nearly 40 likes on the publication of "Kastriots of Dardania - Northern Albania".
Account "Luan Ibrahim Gacaferi" on Facebook, has over 20 thousand followers, the one with the name "Elez Neziraj" has over 14 thousand followers, while "The Kastriots of Dardania – Northern Albania" has over 13 thousand followers.
Although the image does not explicitly specify that the statement is attributed to Albin Kurti, the way the content is presented, through his photograph accompanied by this statement, suggests that the words are attributed to him. This image lacks information on when and where the alleged statement was made.
Therefore, to verify whether Albin Kurti made this statement, the research was continued in several different sources of information.
Hibrid.info first researched Kurti's Facebook account. The search was done using the caption title "I GAVE KOSOVO BACK TO MY PEOPLE!".
No results were found from this search (see here).
Subsequently, the search with the same words was also conducted on the website of the Prime Minister's Office, which Kurti currently heads, as well as on the website of the VETËVENDOSJE! Movement, the political entity of which he is the chairman (see here and here).
While the LVV website did not provide a search option, a search on the Prime Minister's Office website did not yield any results.
The last sources used for search were the search engine “Google” and the video publishing platform “Youtube.com.” Here too, the search continued with the same title as keywords.
However, the search results did not yield any reliable source that would confirm the alleged statement (see here and here).
Analyze:
The content claiming that Albin Kurti has declared that he "returned Kosovo to its people" and that he "put Mitrovica back on the map" is not credible.
There is no evidence that Kurti has made such a public statement.
Searching for the key phrases of the quote on his Facebook account, on the website of the Prime Minister's Office, on the website of the VETËVENDOSJE! Movement, as well as on Google and YouTube, did not result in any source confirming this statement.
Furthermore, the image does not specify when and where the alleged statement was made.
Therefore, based on its work methodology, Hibrid.info assesses this content as "Fake News".
Reasoning:
The “Fake News” rating is given to informational content that is entirely fabricated or that contains factually incorrect claims or information. Content that is rated as fake news can be defined as having been created and distributed with the intent to misinform the public, i.e., to present a claim that is completely false as fact.