Prepared by: Festim Rizanaj
Monitoring shows that over the last week (August 25 - 31, 2025), the information space in the media and social media has been dominated by fake news and hoaxes.
The fake news of the last week has been published mainly on social networks and pages with anonymous names. On August 19, a Facebook account named “Lajme Nga Bota” shared a photo of Prime Minister Edi Rama with members of the Jewish community, claiming that Albania had agreed to shelter Jews expelled from Palestine. This claim was deemed false, as there is no official decision and the photo belongs to a visit by Rama to New York. Also, on August 18, on TikTok, the account “dardania_seal” published a video claiming that Kosovo had purchased 16 “BMC Altug 8×8” military vehicles from Turkey. This news also turned out to be false, as the contract for these vehicles was signed only between the Turkish company “BMC” and the Presidency of Defense Industry of Turkey, without the involvement of Kosovo.
The fraudulent content has mainly appeared on Facebook, using page names that create false credibility. On August 26, the page “Autowelt” published a post claiming to be giving away two “Volkswagen” cars. Users were asked to comment “@highlight” to participate in an alleged lottery. Verification by hibrid.info and the Danish platform tjekdet.dk described this content as fraudulent, explaining that the aim was to direct users to dangerous pages where they risked giving away their personal data. Similarly, the page “Mega Mall” shared a fraudulent message claiming that winners had received a “Volkswagen Tiguan” 2025, but to benefit from it, registration via a link was required within 24 hours. Hibrid.info confirmed that it was a classic scam, as the page used a free domain, had no verified contact and requested personal and credit card details, linked to previous fraud cases.
The content that was assessed as clickbait/fact manipulation is the article published on August 25 by several online media with the title: “PDK votes Dimal Basha for Speaker of the Parliament, says Çitaku – 'We just wanted to know if they are serious'”. This title attributes an incorrect statement by Vlora Çitaku, who did not explicitly say this.
The August 25 publication by the Facebook pages "Jepi Zë" and "Përmledhja" was considered a manipulation of facts, as it spread the claim that Donika Gërvalla said that the government created 430 thousand jobs. Hibrid.info confirmed that this was a manipulation of facts, as Gërvalla spoke of an increase of 85 thousand in active employment.
Unverified content is the claim published on August 26 by the Telegram account “БУНТ је стънде духа ♱⃓”, that Albanians are planning to remove the monument to “Tsar Lazar” in Mitrovica. This information has also been distributed in Albanian, but so far there is no confirmation from institutions, local authorities or the media.
Fake news
A photo has been published showing Edi Rama, the Prime Minister of Albania, accompanied by members of the Jewish community, with the caption claiming that he has agreed to bring Jews expelled from the Palestinian land to Albania, with the Albanian state providing them with a place to stay. The content with this claim was published on Tuesday (August 19) by an account named “Lajme Nga Bota”. Hibrid.info has found that the claim in question is unfounded. There is no official decision confirmed by Rama or any credible source and that the photo is not related to any agreement to shelter Jews in Albania, but rather depicts a religious moment of Edi Rama at the Ohel i Rebe in New York. (here)
Through a video material published on TikTok, it is claimed that Kosovo has ordered 16 BMC Altug 8×8 military vehicles from Turkey. This content was published on August 18 by the account “dardania_seal”. After verification of the facts carried out by hibrid.info, it was confirmed that this claim is false. Currently, only the Presidency of Defense Industry in Turkey has signed a contract with the Turkish defense company “BMC” for the supply of these vehicles. (here)
Clickbait/Fact manipulation
On Monday (August 25), an article titled “PDK votes Dimal Basha for Speaker of the Assembly, says Çitaku – “We just wanted to know if they are serious” was distributed in several Albanian-language online media outlets. The article was published by online media outlets such as “Gazetainfokus.com”, “Gazeta10.com”, “Veriu.info”, “Ekonomiaonline.com”, “Frontonline.net”, “Demokracia.com”, “Nacionale.com” and “Gazetablic.com”. After fact-checking by hibrid.info, it was confirmed that the deputy and secretary general of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), Vlora Çitaku, did not explicitly say that “PDK votes Dimal Basha for Speaker of the Assembly”, as claimed in the headlines of the aforementioned articles. (here)
Manipulation of facts
Content is being published with the caption that claims that Donika Gërvalla, the Deputy Prime Minister and Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, has declared that “This government has created 430 thousand new jobs.” This content was published on Monday (August 25), by the Facebook pages with the names “Jepi Zë” and “Përmledhja”. Hibrid.info has found that Gërvalla’s statement about jobs has been misinterpreted. Gërvalla said that the number of active employees has increased from 350 thousand to 435 thousand (85 thousand new jobs), not that the government has created 430 thousand jobs. (here)
disinformation
The accounts Vukfenix and MarioZNA on the X platform, on August 25 (Monday), published a video showing two women arguing. According to the description of the post, the incident took place in Venice, Italy, where an American tourist allegedly grabbed an Albanian migrant girl by the hair, suspected of being a pickpocket. The post adds that the tourist's AirPods and passport were taken, which she tracked through the "Find My" app, identifying and confronting the suspect. After researching international media and other reliable sources, there is no information confirming the identity or nationality of the girl involved in the incident. (here)
Clickbait
An article titled: “Trump warns: If Russia does not move towards peace, we declare war” has been published. The content with this title was published on Wednesday (August 27) by the online medium “Paparaci.com”. Hibrid.info has noticed that the title in this case is generalizing. The news item reports that the President of the United States of America (USA), Donald Trump, has spoken about the possibility of new economic sanctions against Russia. He has described these sanctions as an “economic war”. (here)
Lies
A Facebook page called “Autowelt” published a post on August 26, 2025 claiming to be giving away two Volkswagen cars. To participate, users are asked to write the word “@highlight” in the comment, and if it appears in blue, they are said to be entered into a lottery. Verification carried out by hibrid.info and the Danish fact-checking platform “tjekdet.dk” has confirmed that this post is fraudulent. According to tjekdet.dk, the scammers try to lure users to websites that are not related to cars, where participants may end up providing personal data for purely fraudulent purposes. (here)
A message has been found claiming that the person who accepted it has won a 2025 Volkswagen Tiguan, for which they are required to register by entering their details via a link within 24 hours. The author of this message is a Facebook page called “Mega Mall”. Hibrid.info has found that the message is a scam. The page that distributed the message used a free domain, has no verified contact, requests personal and credit card details under the pretext of “verification”, and is linked to previous cases of fraud. (here)
Unverified content
On August 26, the Serbian-language Telegram account БУНТ је стънде духа ♱⃓ published a post claiming that, according to some information they have received, Albanians are planning to remove the monument to “Tsar Lazar” in Mitrovica, Kosovo. So, after research in the digital information sphere, it turns out that this claim has not only spread in Serbian, but has also been published in Albanian. So far, there has been no confirmation from Kosovo institutions, local authorities in Mitrovica or the media that there is a plan to remove the monument to “Tsar Lazar”. (here)