Prepared by: Festim Rizanaj
Fake news has been the dominant category of misinformation during monitoring of media and social platforms in the past week.
Over the past week, fake news has been published mainly on TikTok and Facebook, with content related to false claims about the recognition of Kosovo’s independence and Serbia’s influence in Kosovo’s internal politics. On April 12, a photo was published on TikTok by the account “ballkankosova.net2” showing Kosovo’s President Vjosa Osmani and Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa, claiming that Syria has recognized Kosovo as a state – information that is not supported by any official decision. The same account, on March 30, published another image showing Osmani and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, falsely claiming that Greece has also recognized Kosovo. Meanwhile, on April 16, the Facebook page “Kosova Channel” published an image with portraits of opposition leaders in Kosovo and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić in the center, claiming that he had declared: “We, the Serbian List, will form the government together with the opposition” – a statement not verified by any official source. In all cases, Hibrid.info has proven that these contents are false.
The unverified content published last week was mainly distributed on Facebook and by online media that did not confirm the accuracy of the information presented. On April 14, the website “MediaNews.al” published a video showing the interior of a car with water leaking from the roof, with the caption “Albanian complains about the car that came to him from Korea”. After verification by Hibrid.info, it was found that the video is not related to any case in Kosovo or Albania, but was published earlier by an Azerbaijani website and is related to a car manufactured by the Chinese company “Jetour”. Another case is that of a photo published on April 19 by the portal “gazetademos.com”, which allegedly shows a resignation letter from Albin Kurti, as acting prime minister, addressed to MP Avni Dehari. Verification by Hibrid.info showed that this is not an official document, but an illustrative model distributed by the Kosovo Law Institute (KLI), which aims to explain what a resignation letter might look like in hypothetical cases.
The false statements circulating last week include comments by prominent political figures that were contradicted or refuted by facts and official sources. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in an interview with the newspaper Kommersant, compared Kosovo’s independence to Russia’s annexation of Crimea, accusing the West of double standards and describing the rejection of the referendum in Crimea as a form of ethnic prejudice against Slavs. However, this comparison is unfounded: while Kosovo declared independence after a long process under international administration and with the support of a large part of the international community, Crimea was forcibly annexed by Russia in violation of international law and without broad legitimacy. Another false statement was made by Kosovo’s Defense Minister, Ejup Makedonci, who in an interview with TRT Balkan on April 15 stated that Bulgaria would join the Albania–Kosovo–Croatia military alliance. This statement was immediately denied by Bulgarian authorities, who have not confirmed any such commitment.
Recent examples of clickbait headlines have appeared mainly on online portals that have used exaggerated or false headlines to attract attention, while the content does not match what the headline promises. On April 17, the portal “mediafokus.net” published an article with the title “Bread – 80 cents, follows the increase in electricity prices”, creating the impression that the price of bread has already increased to 80 cents. However, the content of the article indicates that it is only a possible warning from an individual and not an official decision. Also, on April 19, portals such as “KosovaPost.net” and “IndeksOnline.net” published articles with the title “Fatmir Limaj declares whether there is a coalition between Vetëvendosje and NISMA”. After fact-checking by Hibrid.info, it was found that the title does not match the content, as Limaj did not give any answer to the question regarding a possible coalition with Vetëvendosje, which makes the title inaccurate.
This week, fraudulent SMS messages claiming to be from the Kosovo Post have been distributed, requesting an update on the details of a pending package. The messages come from numbers with foreign prefixes (+31, +44) and lead to fake websites that misuse the Post logo. The Kosovo Post has denied any connection to these messages and has warned citizens not to click on the links sent. Hibrid.info through the online platform Scamdoc.com has confirmed that these websites are suspicious.
Fake news
A photo has been published showing Vjosa Osmani, the president of Kosovo, and Ahmed al Sharaa, the president of Syria, with the caption claiming that this country has recognized the independence of Kosovo. This image with this claim was published (April 12) on TikTok by an account named, “ballkankosova.net2”. Hibrid.info has found that there is no official decision from Syria to recognize Kosovo as a state. (here)
A photo has been published showing Vjosa Osmani, the president of Kosovo, and Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the prime minister of Greece, with the caption claiming that this country has recognized the independence of Kosovo. This image with this claim was published (March 30) on TikTok by an account named, “ballkankosova.net2”. Hibrid.info has found that there is no official announcement confirming that Greece has recognized Kosovo as a state. (here)
A photograph has been published showing separately the portraits of the leaders of the political parties that were in opposition in the previous legislature (PDK, LDK and AAK) in Kosovo, while in the center of the image is that of the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić. In the content published (April 16) by the “Kosova Channel” page on Facebook, the caption is placed that claims that the Serbian President has declared, “We, the Serbian List, together with the opposition, will form the government.” Hibrid.info has not found any source or fact that Vučić has publicly declared what is claimed. (here)
Unverified content
A video has been published showing the interior of a car, where water can be seen flowing from its roof. “The Albanian complains about the car that came to him from Korea,” the description of this video says. The content was published yesterday, April 14, on Facebook by the page “MediaNews.al”. After a research conducted by hibrid.info, it was found that this content has been circulating on the internet since March of this year, published by an Azerbaijani page, and based on its caption, it is a car manufactured by the Chinese company “Jetour”. (here)
A photograph has been published, which allegedly shows Albin Kurti's resignation letter from the position of acting Prime Minister, which he sent to Avni Dehari, the deputy chairing the constitutive session of the Kosovo Assembly. This content was published today (April 19) by the online medium, "gazetademos.com". Hibrid.info found that it is not a resignation letter from Prime Minister Kurti, but an illustrative model distributed by the Kosovo Institute for Law (IKD), which shows what a formal resignation of a minister in office or the acting Prime Minister of the Government of Kosovo could look like. (here)
False statement
Sergey Lavrov, in an interview with Kommersant, compared Kosovo's independence to the annexation of Crimea, accusing the West of double standards. He described the rejection of the referendum in Crimea as ethnic prejudice against Slavs and a racist approach on the part of the West. The facts show that the comparison of Kosovo with Crimea is unfounded, as Kosovo declared independence under international administration, while Crimea was forcibly annexed by Russia in violation of international treaties and without broad legal support. (here)
Ejup Makedonci, Minister of Defense, has announced that Bulgaria will join the military alliance, Albania – Kosovo – Croatia, signed weeks ago. The Macedonian said this in an exclusive interview, published yesterday (April 15) for TRT Balkan at the Diplomacy Forum in Antalya. This claim was later denied by the Bulgarian state. (here)
Clickbait
An article titled, “Bread – 80 cents, follows the increase in electricity prices” has been published. The content was published today (April 17) by a medium named, “mediafokus.net”. In this title, the price of bread, 80 cents, is presented as a fait accompli, while its content shows that we are only dealing with a possible warning from an individual and not with an official decision. (here)
“Fatmir Limaj declares whether there is a coalition between Vetëvendosje and NISMA” is the title of an article published (April 19). The article with this title was published today by information portals such as “KosovaPost.net” and “IndeksOnline.net”. After fact-checking by hibrid.info, it was confirmed that the title does not correspond to the content. The content of these articles explains that Limaj did not answer journalists whether there is a coalition with the Vetëvendosje Movement (LVV). (here)
Lies
Some citizens of Kosovo have received fraudulent SMS messages claiming to be from the Kosovo Post, requesting to update the details of a package left behind due to an incomplete address. The Kosovo Post has reacted by warning citizens not to click on the links sent, as these messages do not come from them. The senders’ numbers have foreign prefixes, such as +31 (Netherlands) and +44 (United Kingdom). Hibrid.info has confirmed that the links lead to fake pages that misuse the Kosovo Post logo, but not the official domain. The website has been assessed as suspicious by the website verification platform “Scamdoc.com”. (here)