Facebook Pages "New Newspaper”And“KOHA Newspaper" published posts on Tuesday (May 12) with the caption "Good news for citizens from ALBIN KURTI".
The image used shows the acting Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, along with the claim "THE KURTI GOVERNMENT JUST ALLOCATED 11 MILLION EUROS, HERE'S WHO BENEFITS."
What's wrong with this content?
Both sites have shared links to the relevant article in the comments section. After opening the article, it is noticed that the title does not match the actual content of the news.
The text of the article explains that it concerns the approval of the request of the Central Election Commission (CEC) for the allocation of 10,887,186.45 euros from the Kosovo budget, for the organization of early parliamentary elections expected to be held on June 7.
Why is this content being treated?
The post published by the "Gazeta Re" page, as of the writing of this article, has managed to collect a total of 306 reactions, 174 comments and 43 shares. (see photo below).
While the post published by the "Gazeta KOHA" page has collected 17 reactions and 5 comments (see here).
Suspicious websites
"Gazeta Re" distributed the article published by the website "teleshkronjapost.info", while "Gazeta KOHA" distributed the article published by the website "factznews.xyz".
After verifying the facts, it was confirmed that both of these websites are suspicious, as they are characterized by a lack of transparency. They do not contain basic identifying information, such as the name of the organization or the responsible persons behind the publications. They also lack contact information, physical address or other forms of communication, which are standard elements for media or platforms that aim to be considered trustworthy (see here and here).
Analyze
Through posts published on Facebook, it is claimed that the incumbent government has allocated 11 million euros to citizens.
However, upon opening the articles, it is noticed that the titles do not match the content. The text clarifies that it is about the approval of budgetary funds for the organization of early parliamentary elections.
The content is distributed from Facebook pages, while the links lead to dubious websites that do not provide transparency on ownership, authors, or official contacts.
Based on its work methodology, hibrid.info evaluates this content as "Clickbait".
rationale
“Clickbait” is considered to be informational content whose title is general and does not disclose the location of the event, context and relevance. Such texts and articles aim to attract the attention of the audience with sensational headlines with misleading consequences, which do not accurately clarify the content of the article. “Clickbait” headlines are mainly made to attract readability in the case of media publications and/or to earn from clicks in the case of commercial publications.