Wrote: Etrit Rexhepi
"VukFeNix" is the name of an account on the social platform X (formerly Twitter). The location of the author who manages this account is unknown, but according to available data, it was created in 2022. Currently, the account has over 900 followers and around 18 thousand posts, mainly in English and Serbian. The published content has a pronounced pro-Serbian and pro-Russian tendency, while there is no shortage of posts with anti-Western, anti-Islamic and anti-Albanian messages.
The anti-Albanian content includes claims that question the statehood of Kosovo and the war of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). It also falsely claims that the perpetrators of many criminal acts committed in various European countries are of Albanian nationality. This account publishes videos that present cases of criminal acts and, without any evidence, claims that the persons shown committing them are Albanians.
So far, Hibrid.info has covered nine such videos in eight articles, rating seven of them as “Disinformation” (see here, here and here ) and one as “Fake News” (here). Four of these “Disinformation” have also been categorized as “Fact Manipulation” (read here, here, here and here).
According to the methodology of hibrid.info, the assessment as "Disinformation" is that information content which contains a "mix" of inaccurate sources or even half-truthful attributes, and which is created and/or distributed with the deliberate intention of causing harm. Behind the motive of the producers/distributors of disinformation content lies the achievement of a political, financial, psychological or social goal (see here), while the rating as "Manipulation of facts" is given to those informative contents that use facts known to be accurate, but interpret them in a distorted way (here).
With the exception of one video, where a woman – who is claimed to be Albanian – is shown speaking in English with high tones and inappropriate language regarding the outcome of the presidential election in the United States of America (USA) (here), as well as another video that claims to feature the Kosovo Police (here), in all other cases addressed and published by this account, these are criminal offenses, which are falsely claimed to have been committed by Albanians.
Another characteristic of most of these video materials handled by Hibrid.info is that the national identity of the people featured in them is difficult to verify. Something that could make it easier to spread the disinformation intended in this case by this publisher.
in first publication (August 27, 2024) of this account – encountered and verified by hibrid.info where it was baselessly claimed that “Albanian drug gangs” are burning vehicles in Sweden, while recently through a video shared by this account, it was claimed that an illegal Albanian immigrant had robbed an elderly woman in Trieste, Italy, after an investigation by the Hibrid.info platform, it was proven that this claim is false, since the author of the work is a Moroccan citizen (here).
Hibrid.info will continue to monitor the account in question or any other publisher that publishes similar claims.