Last week was characterized by a dominance of clickbait articles in the information sphere.
The clickbait content was about events (murders) whose location is not disclosed in the headline, as well as content about retirement age and early elections.
There was disinformation from the Serbian-language media claiming that KLA veterans are demanding money from killed Serbs, as well as disinformation content on Facebook claiming that Minister Peci had an accident.
Deceptive content on Facebook such as loan offers and false advertisements for the sale of a home.
Unverified content from the media regarding the claim that Kosovo has purchased military equipment from Turkey; as well as unverified content from Avni Zogiani regarding an interpretation of the annual report on information disorder in Kosovo published by hibrid.info.
False content in Albanian on the social network TikTok claiming that Kosovo is being built by helicopter; as well as on the social network Telegram in Serbian claiming that more drones fly over northern Kosovo than in Ukraine.
Conspiracy theory from a Serbian-language media outlet claiming that Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti (including Behgjet Pacolli) is creating a political party in Belgrade.
disinformation
The Serbian language media outlet “Alo.rs” has published an article with the claim in the title that KLA veterans warn of protests, demand money to kill Serbs. The claim is based on the protest of KLA veterans, who asked President Vjosa Osmani not to decree the law on the minimum wage, which they said discriminates against former fighters, otherwise they warned of continued protests in front of Kosovo institutions. The interpretation of the KLA veterans’ request as a demand for money to kill Serbs is unfounded. (here)
A Facebook page named “Universal” published a photo on July 19 with the caption claiming that Faton Peci, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development, along with his escort, had an accident. However, hibrid.info has not found any reports from credible publishers that confirm the claim of the page in question. Based on the research, it has been verified that this is a report of an event that occurred last month (June), which the aforementioned page is trying to present as current news. (here)
Lies The Facebook page “Kredi Për Biznes” continues to publish posts with false claims, presenting them as loan offers. On July 14, this page posted an offer for a loan of up to 5 thousand euros, claiming that if customers use these funds to purchase household appliances, motorcycles, cars or land, then the interest rate will be reduced to 2%. After research conducted by hibrid.info, it was noticed that in the information section about the activity (about), this page does not provide any information. (here)
The suspicious portal with content in the Albanian language “viraln32.com” published on July 8 a fake advertisement for the sale of an apartment, setting an unrealistic price. After verifying the facts and research conducted through online search engines, hibrid.info has confirmed that the photo does not correspond to the content. So, it is not about the apartment that is shown in the image. (here)
Clickbait
Several media outlets have published an article titled “Kurti: We are paving the way for early elections.” Although the statement by Albin Kurti, Prime Minister of Kosovo, taken from his tweet on Twitter, is accurate, hibrid.info has researched and verified that the lack of clarity about what and where the elections will be held leaves room for misinterpretations. Based on the way the article is titled, the reader may assume that it is about early parliamentary elections in Kosovo. (here)
The portal “Kosova-sot.info” has published an article titled “We discover a horror case in this city, a human head is found inside a plastic bag”. After fact-checking by hibrid.info, it was confirmed that the title of this article is a generalization that does not clarify where the event took place. The news is clarified only in the content, which states "A very serious event has shocked Greece, as local authorities announce that they have found a human head inside a bag, Greek media report." Knowing that this information portal is registered in Kosovo (see here) and most of its readers are Albanian speakers (see here), the title in question may misinform readers that this event occurred in our country. (here)
The Facebook page “Zëri Jonë” published an article on July 8 titled “Retirement age changes: Here’s how old men and women will be now.” After fact-checking by hibrid.info, it was confirmed that this article is old, published in January 2020, and concerns pensioners in Albania. (here)
The portal “Kosova-sot.info” has published an article titled “Latest news: Man kills ex-girlfriend’s fiancé and then himself”. After fact-checking by hibrid.info, it was confirmed that the title of this article is a generalization that does not clarify where the event took place. The news is clarified only in the content, which states that “A serious incident has occurred in Poland, where a man killed his ex-girlfriend's fiancé and then himself.". Based on the followers of the Facebook page, the portal "kosova-sot.info" has the largest number of readers from Kosovo, not providing information about the location of the event could very easily result in misinforming readers, making them think that this event took place in Kosovo. (here)
Unverified content
The account named “r/kosovo” on the social news aggregation platform “Reddit” published on July 16 four documents, which state that Kosovo has purchased military equipment from Turkey. The first suspicions about these documents come from the fact that they lack the logos of the institutions in question, such as the Ministries of Defense of both countries or the respective governments. A Turkish online platform called DefenceTurk.net, has published an article about this news, referring to the publishers, as it calls “social media and blogs based in Kosovo”. However, the Kosovo Ministry of Defense has denied the authenticity of these documents. (here)
Avni Zogiani, Deputy Minister of Environment and Infrastructure, has published on his Facebook account an interpretation of the annual report on information disorder in Kosovo published by hibrid.info. Zogiani, based on some erroneous media reports that 58% of Albanian-language media outlets misinformed about the north, made a false description in his status, claiming that “58% of reports about the north in the Albanian language were fake news or misinformation”. The hibrid.info report states that 58% of misinformation about the north was published by publishers in the Albanian language (and not only the media), 39% by those in the Serbian language. (here)
Fake news
A TikTok account named “lagraqsaqi” has published a photo showing Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti near a military helicopter. The caption of this photo claims that for the first time Kosovo is being visited by helicopter. After researching online search engines, hibrid.info managed to find this old photo, taken in July 2021. (here)
A post was published on the social media “Telegram” claiming the presence of drones (at least 5) last night (July 21) in northern Kosovo that, as it is said, do not belong to KFOR but to Albanians. The Serbian-language Telegram channel named “БУНТ је стънде духа” (Albanian: rebellion is a state of mind) claimed that “more drones fly over northern Kosovo than in Ukraine, the question arises, what is the function of KFOR in Kosovo?”, implying that the drones belong to Kosovo security units and why is KFOR allowing them to fly over the airspace in the north. This claim published by this channel is not based on any credible source for the claim made. (here)
Conspiracy theory
The Serbian language media outlet “Alo.rs” has published an article (July 19) claiming that Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti (including Behgjet Pacolli) is establishing a political party in Belgrade. As the newspaper claims based on its own information, lawyer Čedomir Stojković and politician Boban Bogdanović recently visited Pristina with the aim of obtaining financial support from representatives of the provisional institutions of Pristina for the establishment of a Euro-Atlantic political party in Serbia. This article on the media outlet’s website is titled “THE PLAN OF HELL: Kurti and Pacolli are establishing a party in Belgrade! Meanwhile, the front page of the newspaper on Wednesday (July 19) is titled “Kurti is establishing a party in the middle of Belgrade”. Despite the fact that the media outlet, as it says, is based on its own information, no credible facts are provided for the claim made. (here)