Meta has suspended the accounts of Albanian activists over protests against a resort
Meta has blocked or deleted dozens of Instagram accounts linked to Albanian activists, journalists, and an opposition representative. This comes amid months of protests against the construction of a luxury resort.
The project is being developed by a company linked to Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Protests have been ongoing in Albania for nearly 100 days against plans to build a luxury resort on the Adriatic coast, a project being developed by Jared Kushner’s company. The demonstrations later escalated into anti-government protests calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama.
Sandro Gozi, an Italian Member of the European Parliament from the Renew Europe group, condemned the suspension of protesters’ Instagram accounts and called on Meta to respond.
“When dozens of accounts belonging to the opposition and activists linked to the same protest movement disappear almost simultaneously, we cannot simply dismiss this as a technical issue,” Gozi said.
Social media played a crucial role in the protests in Albania, allowing citizens and journalists to report in real time from their accounts, mobilize protesters, and document clashes with the police. However, over the past few weeks, they have faced reports of copyright violations, content removals, as well as account suspensions and closures.
At the same time, those affected insist that they did not violate any Instagram rules.
A Meta spokesperson noted in a statement that the company is reviewing the actions taken against these accounts but has already reinstated some of those that were removed in error. The company also reminded users that Instagram has a procedure for appealing account suspensions.
Although access has been restored for some users, others are facing restrictions on live streaming and collaborating with other creators, or are experiencing “shadow bans,” where the distribution of their content to other users is limited.
Agron Shehaj, a member of the Albanian parliament and leader of the opposition party “Opportunity,” lost access to his account on Wednesday evening.
“If the rules governing account suspensions and deletions are not clear and transparent, the government has every opportunity to extend its censorship to social media, causing potentially irreversible harm to society,” he said in a statement to the publication.
Shehai said the platform’s rules are vague, and such loopholes can easily be exploited by governments or those they have mobilized to silence critical voices.
“And that is exactly what we are seeing right now: overnight, hundreds of accounts supporting the protests and calling for Prime Minister Edi Rama’s resignation were shut down,” he said.
Rama responded to the accusations on X: “So let me be absolutely clear: we have absolutely nothing to do with blocking or restricting any social media account, nor do we have the technical capability to carry out such an operation. Shame on this whole bunch of losers for spreading such nonsense.”
As a reminder, the project for a luxury resort worth over 1.4 billion euros, being developed by Kushner’s company Affinity Partners, has sparked mass protests in this Western Balkan country. It is believed that the construction plans will impact an environmentally protected area on the Adriatic coast.
This is reported in a Politico article.
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