Wrote: Fatbardh Dema
"Heavy rain and storms flood these cities in our country," reads the headline of one article.
This article was published yesterday (October 9) from the suspicious portal with content in Albanian "atdheulajm.com".
The same article was also published on Facebook by the page "Homeland News".
What's wrong with this title?
After clicking on the article, it is noticed that the title does not correspond to the article. The article contains a warning from the National Civil Protection Agency and the Ministry of Defense in Albania, which have called on citizens living in the Lezha and Shkodra regions to be careful as heavy rain and storms are expected over the next three days.
So, it is not true that these cities were inundated by heavy rain, as claimed in the headline.
Part of the article content
The National Civil Protection Agency and the Ministry of Defense have called on citizens living in the Lezha and Shkodra regions to be careful as heavy rain and storms are expected over the next three days.
Through an official announcement, it is announced that the National Civil Protection Agency and the Ministry of Defense are continuously monitoring the situation and in close communication with local government and central structures of the civil protection system to increase readiness as needed.
After conducting online research, hibrid.info has found the warning of the National Civil Protection Agency in Albania, through which citizens of the Lezhë and Shkodër regions are called upon to show increased caution and cooperate with institutions for any possible situation, as in the next three days there is expected to be moderate rainfall accompanied by thunderstorms. (see here)
Analyze:
The headline claimed that "heavy rain and storms flood these cities in our country."
After fact-checking by hibrid.info, it was confirmed that the headline is incorrect. The content of the article only contains a warning of moderate rainfall in Lezha and Shkodra, which is expected to be accompanied by thunderstorms.
Based on its work methodology, hibrid.info assesses this article as "Disinformation" and "Clickbait".
Reasoning:
"Disinformation" is defined as information content that contains a "mix" of inaccurate sources or even half-truthful attributes, and that is created and/or distributed with the deliberate intention of causing harm. The motive behind the producers/distributors of disinformation content lies in achieving a political, financial, psychological or social goal.
“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.