The fact-checking platform, hibrid.info, has revealed the latest data on information disorder, with a focus on misinformation related to the parliamentary elections in Kosovo.
As reported in the October report, an increase in misinformation has been observed on the social media platform TikTok. This social media, based on the report's data, has become the main center of disinformation campaigns related to the parliamentary elections scheduled for February 9, 2025.
Based on the October report, election polls and other election-related issues make up the majority of the 55 pieces of misinformation that were addressed by this platform. The North was another topic that dominated the misinformation. Of these 55 pieces of misinformation, 73 percent were published on social media, with TikTok dominating with 38 percent.
"Election polls as a topic dominate in October, being linked to the pre-election misinformation campaign that is taking place on social media. The North, as a topic, has had some misinformation content, and so have the elections in Kosovo. When we combine election polls and the Kosovo elections, two common topics make up the majority of the misinformation content published during October, and this practice has continued during November," said hibrid.info researcher Festim Rizanaj at a press conference on Friday.
He announced that figures related to elections or political parties have also dominated as the most talked about in misinformation publications. The name of Prime Minister Albin Kurti has been the most talked about during October in misinformation content.
Another researcher at hibrid.info, Fatbardh Dema, said that misinformation reports in August, September and October showed an increase in misinformation posted on the social media platform TikTok. Until September, Facebook was the social media platform with the most misinformation covered by hibrid.info. In September, TikTok dominated, initially with 35 percent of misinformation content, and in October with 38 percent.
"TikTok's format promotes virality, and misinformation on this platform is able to spread more quickly through simple videos that include false interpretations of current events. The most affected areas include politics, where misinformation content is mainly related to elections and fake polls," Dema said.
Since August 16, when the election date of February 9, 2025 was set, 14 fake polls have been verified by this platform. According to researchers, most of them were published on TikTok.
"When we say fake polls, they contained completely fabricated content, there were also old polls that were falsely presented as current, as well as old polls that were presented as current, but with manipulated data, depending on which party or candidate the publisher supports. From January 1 to August 16, there were 7 fake polls. So there has been an enormous increase since August in the number of polls published on TikTok," Dema said.
Full report for October: (here)