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"Sock Doll": Anonymous Instagram Page Spreads Disinformation About Arlind Qori

2025-01-31 17:59:25Politikë SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
"Sock Doll": Anonymous Instagram Page Spreads Disinformation About
Screenshot of the Instagram page that spreads disinformation about the Together Movement and its leader, Arlind Qori.

An anonymous Instagram page has been involved in a black propaganda campaign against the party led by Arlind Qori, spreading unfounded information through posts and advertisements that are not identified as political communication.

“Everything is clear, Sali Berisha and Arlind Qorri are together,” declares a short video – known in social media slang as a ‘reel’, posted on Instagram on January 20, the day the Together Movement called a protest in front of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Tirana to demand transparency about the attempted suicide of the police officer who arrested the son of businessman Samir Mane.

The accompanying post of the video emphasized that Berisha and Qori – whose surname has a soft r – are two sides of the same coin and are mocking the public by “throwing ashes in their eyes”.

"They use our troubles for power, they make us take to the streets for their interests," the post emphasized, while calling on the public not to fall for the deception, adding that "these are professionals in deception, not politics."

The electoral campaign for the May 11 parliamentary elections is still several months away; however, political communications and advertisements targeting voters, both domestically and internationally, have increased on social media platforms.

The video posted against Arlind Qori on January 20 was just the opening episode of a full-scale disinformation campaign launched by the anonymous page "Let's Lie Together" on Instagram.

In the last 10 days, this page, founded in August 2024, which has changed its name at least once and has only 307 followers, has reached more than 86,157 views with at least 16 posts against the Joint Movement and its leader. In at least one case, it used advertising, which was deleted by Meta – Instagram’s parent company, because it was not classified by the advertiser as a political ad.

"Sock Doll": Anonymous Instagram Page Spreads Disinformation About
The We Lie Together advertisement, which was deleted by Meta

Qori told BIRN that he could not say for sure who was behind the disinformation page, but he stressed that it had taken as its title the insult that Interior Minister Ervin Hoxha had expressed against the BASHKA Movement.

"I can't say for sure who is behind it, but it's probably our political opponents or economic oligarchs," he said.

“The fact that this page was created after the call for protests by the Together Movement to demand transparency in the case of police officer Azbi Spahiu is significant,” Qori added.

The January 20 protest was called by the Together Movement to demand transparency from the State Police regarding the possible causes that led to the suicide attempt of police officer Azbi Spahiu, who was involved in the arrest of the son of businessman Samir Mane.

In its posts, the Instagram page "We Lie Together" claims, among other things, without citing facts, that police officer Azbi Spahiu has initiated criminal proceedings against Qori for organizing an illegal rally under his name, and that the latter was eating and drinking with colleagues while the Together Movement was protesting in front of the Ministry of Interior in Tirana.

Anonymous pages like "Let's Lie Together" are known online as a 'sock puppet' account, a fake account, fake identity, or secret profile used to manipulate public opinion.

This is not the first time that anonymous pages have been used on social networks to spread disinformation during election campaigns in Albania.

In the 2021 parliamentary elections, BIRN found that five anonymous Facebook pages campaigned against the opposition, recording 51.44 million views through political ads. The publication of this data was accompanied by calls from organizations that monitor election integrity for the regulation of third-party ads on social media.

Qori told BIRN that they had not reported the page on the platform for violating Instagram's community standards for spreading fake news, because from previous experience with attack and defamation campaigns against the Joint Movement, they had understood that reporting these cases did not bring the expected effect.

"Every time the government and the oligarchs feel the effects of the principled opposition that the Together Movement is making, such pages and messages surface," he said, adding that we are accustomed and prepared for disinformation campaigns.

"However, we expect even worse from our opponents and we remain with the principle that the truth will set us all free," concluded the leader of the Joint Movement./ BIRN


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