Last week was characterized by a dominance of articles with disinformation content in the misinformation ecosystem in Kosovo. The disinformation content related to claims that Kurti spent 20 thousand euros to replace office furniture; about the fall of dead birds in Gjirokastra; about the death of a Turkish actor; about the death of a 4-year-old girl in the arms of a rescuer in the earthquake in Turkey; as well as the claim of a Serbian-language media outlet that Albanians are preparing for ethnic cleansing of Serbs.
Clickbait articles have mainly been related to various developments that did not disclose the location of the event in the headline.
Conspiracy theory using a photograph taken by artificial intelligence claims that Princess Diana is alive.
Manipulation of facts that LDK MP Driton Selmanaj said that Albin Kurti knows how to speak Serbian better than Albanian.
Misleading articles regarding voting on Big Brother Vip Albania and dating sites.
disinformation
The portal "Rilindja.al" and some dubious portals have published an article, claiming in the title that Facebook and Instagram will be made available for a fee for Albanians. However, the content emphasizes that account verification will be made available for a fee, for people who want to verify them with the "Blue Tick". Also, the news is not specifically about Albanians, as the title suggests. (here)
The account “mrgame.ks” has published a short video on TikTok in which several birds are seen falling dead from the sky, an event that occurred in 2022 in the Mexican city of Chihuahua. However, the aforementioned page published this video on February 7, falsely claiming that this “tragic” event occurred in the Albanian city of Gjirokastër. (here)
The Youtube channel "Melodia e Jetës" has published a video about the death of Turkish actor Cagdas Cankaya and his wife, Zilan Tigris, during the February 6 earthquake. However, at the beginning of the video, another Turkish actor, Burak Özçivit, appears, which suggests that it is about his death. (here)
The Serbian language media outlet “Informer” has published an article claiming that Albanians are preparing for ethnic cleansing of Serbs, based on the exercises conducted by the Kosovo Security Forces at the tactical polygon in Cernushë, Mitrovica, an exercise that is considered illegal by this media outlet based on resolution 1244. After verifying the facts, it was found that the KSF exercises are legal because they are being conducted in accordance with the law on the KSF, in the southern part of Mitrovica without violating the 2013 agreement between Thaçi and NATO. After a fact-checking analysis, it was confirmed that this claim by the Serbian media outlet is tendentious and unfounded. (here)
Several Facebook pages have published a photo claiming that Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti spent 20 thousand euros to replace his office furniture without providing any facts about this. After verification of the facts conducted by hibrid.info, it has been confirmed that 20 thousand euros were not spent to replace the office furniture, but a tender was opened for a value of nearly 10 thousand euros (9,990.00). (here)
Doubtful Albanian-language portals have published an article with the claim in the title that during the earthquake in Turkey, 4-year-old Azra Duru died in the arms of a rescuer, while he was filming her live on his phone. After verifying the facts, it was found that the little girl did not die in the arms of the rescuer, but in the hospital in the city of Adana, after receiving medical treatment. (here)
The dubious portal “freshnews213.com” has published an article about the earthquake that hit Lebanon and Iran yesterday (February 22), to which it has attached photos of another event. Hibrid.info has managed to confirm that the image used in this article is old, taken after the 2020 earthquake that hit the city of Elazig in Turkey. (here)
Manipulation of facts
The TikTok account named “lajme24h” published a video on February 16 claiming that LDK MP Driton Selmanaj said that “ALBIN KURTI KNOWS HOW TO SPEAK SERBIAN BETTER THAN ALBANIAN”. After fact-checking by hibrid.info, it has been confirmed that Selmanaj did not say in this interview that Kurti knows how to speak Serbian better than Albanian, but rather that “Kurti is giving more interviews in Serbian than Albanian”. (here)
Lies
The dubious portal “trueneësq.com” has published an article claiming that the content includes the opportunity to vote for the nominees of the television show “Big Brother Vip Albania”. The content does not present any opportunity for the public to vote for the favored persons. Also, based on the research conducted by hibrid.info, it has been confirmed that there is no possibility to vote online for the nominees in this television show and that the only way is through telephone messages (SMS). (here)
The dubious portal “viralnews40.com” has used an image of a woman taken from a video published on online platforms such as “Shutterstock” and “Storyblocks.com”, falsely claiming that she is from Shkodra and is looking for a love relationship. That this claim is false has been proven after research conducted by hibrid.info, as based on online findings, this woman appears to be a “vlogger” or a person who creates and shares video content on the internet. (here)
Clickbait
The information portal “Kosova-sot.info” has published an article about a 5-year-old girl who was found injured in a park in Berlin, but who later died in hospital. However, the title does not clarify where the incident took place. This online medium is a portal that operates in Kosovo and has the dominant number of readers from Kosovo, based on the page's followers on Facebook. Therefore, not providing information about the location of the incident can very easily misinform readers, making them think that this incident took place in Kosovo. (here)
Doubtful portals have published an old article (April 4, 2022), at a time when nearly a quarter of a million job vacancies were open in Switzerland. However, the dubious portals have tried to present this old article as current, thus leaving room for misinformation among readers. (here)
The portal “Kosova-sot.info” has published an article about Vienna, Austria. The authorities of this city have decided to give around 500 thousand families a bonus of 200 euros for energy, while the title does not clarify which country it is about. This implies that the news is about Kosovo, knowing that this medium is registered in our country and the majority of the audience are Albanian speakers from Kosovo. (here)
Conspiracy theory
The TikTok page "bejevete" has published a video claiming that Princess Diana is alive. This claim is also made by this account through a photo of Diana, in which she is seen in old age. But after research conducted by hibrid.info, it has been confirmed that the image was taken by a Turkish artist, who through artificial intelligence has taken this photo with the caption "As if nothing had happened", implying what she might look like if she were still alive. (here)