The main topic that has dominated the content covered during February 2024 is various tragic cases (deaths, murders), the CBK decision on the dinar and incidents in Serbian settlements. The variety of topics from the political and social fields, about which misinformation was published in real media, dubious portals and social media, has caused content coded as tragic cases (deaths and murders) to prevail during this month. The Central Bank of Kosovo (CBK), on January 17 of this year, announced that the “New Regulation on Cash Operations” had been approved on December 27, 2023, and would enter into force on February 1, 2024. This prompted numerous reactions and discussions, but was also used for misinformation. As a result, content related to the CBK decision on the dinar ranks second in terms of topics. As in January (2024), during February (2024) developments within Serbian settlements have been a topic used for misinformation.
As a result of the handling of misinformation content during this month, many different political topics were used most frequently to misinform. After political content, misinformation content from the social and security fields was used most frequently to misinform.
Based on the monitoring of 60 pieces of misinformation addressed during February 2024, the "clickbait" category has dominated in terms of trends in misinformation published by various media and publishers, followed by disinformation and manipulation of facts.
In the misinformation content published in February 2024, on and about developments in Kosovo, the Office for Kosovo in the Government of Kosovo is the most discussed institution, related to incidents in Serbian settlements.
The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, is the most discussed figure in context with other personalities, in 21 misinformation content where personalities were discussed.
These data came from monitoring report which presents the state of misinformation for the month of February 2024 in content related to Kosovo, based on data provided by the fact-checking platform – hibrid.info. The report is designed by the fact-checking platform hibrid.info, part of the Kosovar NGO “Action for Democratic Society” (ADS) and supported by the American foundation “National Endowment for Democracy” (NED) within the framework of the project “Promoting Objective Journalism and Combating Disinformation”.
Based on 60 pieces of misinformation handled during February 2024, clickbait articles (25%) are the ones that have prevailed, followed by disinformation (13%) and manipulation of facts (12%). In cases where we do not have any development that takes the main focus, in the classification of misinformation content, the clickbait category for mainly tragic topics (death and murder) returns to the first position. This category is followed by disinformation that was published related to various political topics. Even misinformation content that was assessed as manipulation of facts, which was ranked third, was published on various political topics.
Articles within the topic of tragic cases that have dealt with deaths, murders, accidents and disasters in various circumstances or even various social topics, for which the location of the incident is not disclosed in their titles or the titles are misleading with the aim of encouraging clicks from readers, and which have mainly been assessed as "clickbait" and have been published on information portals, are those that have prevailed during February 2024. During this month, some misinformation has also been published regarding the CBK's decision on the dinar, within which some manipulations of facts and disinformation have been published, which have been published mainly in the media where it was claimed that France has considered the CBK's decision a provocation, that Kosovo will suffer badly after this decision, as well as an unspoken statement by Kurti that "I ask the Bank of Kosovo, not the USA". Incidents in Serbian settlements is the third topic that has been used most often to misinform, referring to the communications of the Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia, which claims without facts that these incidents are carried out with the aim of expelling Serbs from their settlements.
In terms of fields, politics is the one that has prevailed during February with 27%, followed by social with 20% and security with 18%. A considerable part of the political field has been assessed as manipulation of facts and disinformation, which have been published in the media, dominating the topic of the CBK decision on the dinar, followed by a host of other political topics. While in the social field, misinformation has been published, including various topics such as the Kosovar diaspora, the increase in pensions, the counterfeiting of the 2 euro currency, etc., which have been assessed mainly as fraud and unverified content, and the vast majority of them have been published on social media. As for the security field, misinformation related to this field has been published in real media (8%) and social media (8%), and some of them have been assessed as conspiracy theories and fake news related to incidents in Serbian settlements and developments in the north.
The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, is the most talked about figure in context with other personalities, on various political topics including the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, the CBK's decision on the dinar, about his statue erected on private property in a village in Podujevo, etc. Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, is the second most talked about figure, in a deepfake video claiming to be Zelensky dancing and in the distribution of the content of the satirical account in Zelensky's name, with the claim that the Kosovo issue will also be discussed in Tirana.
Regarding the control of statements and promises, the Mayor of Pristina, Përparim Rama, in the project that connects Arbërëna with the Youth Palace and the Grand Hotel, differences have been found between the project promised in the 2021 local election campaign and the one presented on February 7, 2024.