Hibrid.info, in the continuation of its daily monitoring of misinformation content, also includes media with content in the Serbian language in its scope. As part of this monitoring, hibrid.info has identified several misinformation items which it has treated with the methodology defined to assess/classify them.
The treatment of misinformation content by hibrid.info has aroused the interest of several Serbian media outlets, as their producers. The Serbian media company Adria Media Group, which has several media outlets in its portfolio, including the newspaper “Kurir” and the portal “mondo.rs”, has reacted via an email sent to the address hibrid.info. The reaction of this media company came as a result of the treatment of several articles published by the newspaper “Kurir” and the portal “mondo.rs” and treated by hibrid.info as misinformation content. The treatment made by hibrid.info has caused “Kurir” and “mondo.rs” to have a decrease in the traffic flowing on the internet and social media, which prompted them to react.
Adria Media Group has requested clarification from hibrid.info via email regarding articles that have been classified as misinformation. Hibrid.info, based on its methodology, has provided its own clarifications regarding the media articles of this group that it has handled. As a result of this clarified communication, Adria Media Group has decided to improve the misinformation articles handled by hibrid.info.
The content that made them react
The content with the claim that the Romanian national team will not accept to play against Kosovo, and in the treatment of hibrid.info, it was assessed as "manipulation of facts", because the Romanian Football Federation has announced that it will discuss with the Romanian government regarding the conditions of the match with the Kosovo national team, without emphasizing anywhere that it will not accept to face the Kosovo national team. (here)
This content with this claim was also published by the portal "mondo.rs", which prompted representatives of Adria Media Group to contact hibrid.info to seek clarification on why this content was classified as "manipulation of facts".
Based on the working methodology, hibrid.info has provided the necessary clarifications, justifying the classification of the article as "manipulation of facts." As a result of the clarification, Adria Media Group has decided to improve the article and publish it in an improved form.
Improved contents
As part of the communication to improve articles that have been classified as misinformation by hibrid.info, Adria Media Group has sent a list of improved articles. This list consists of 22 articles from 20.10.2020 to 31.10.2022.
The topics of the content that were handled by hibrid.info and that were improved by Adria Media Group, include various claims about events and developments in northern Kosovo, claims about various plans by the government in Kosovo towards the Kosovo Serbs (here, here), various attacks on the Serbian community in Kosovo (ketu, here), about the operation of the Kosovo Police in the north (here, here) and the unfounded claims of Serbian officials (here, here).
There was also content such as how Xhaka was born in Serbia (here, here) or the Romanian national team will not play against Kosovo. (here, here)
So, some Serbian-language media outlets have been forced to correct articles with misinformation about and about Kosovo, after complaints that their online traffic has started to drop due to hibrid.info's handling of the facts.